


My Heart That Never Beats: A MayRin AU

by KikiMousy



Category: No Straight Roads (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Light Angst, MayRin - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:55:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28583118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KikiMousy/pseuds/KikiMousy
Summary: When Rin was first built as a robot, he was not ready to be “human”. When he learned about friendship and love, he was not ready to show it with a smile. When he knew what pain and sorrow was, he was not ready to cry it out.It seemed that Rin would never catch up with the humans nor understand their ways, until he met Mayday, a human guitarist……
Relationships: Mayday/White | Rin (No Straight Roads)
Comments: 69
Kudos: 73





	1. A Proposal

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU where Mayday had met Rin even before Bunk Bed Junction existed. Since character development and the relationship between Mayday and Rin are my main focus in this fanfic, there probably won’t be too much plot twist stuff.   
>  The story is going to include these features: MayRin shipping, light angst(I guess), Rin learning to be “human”, Mayday being “slightly” more mature, Neon(kind of) dealing with his war trauma, and some other stuff.  
>  Also, the story is mainly about Mayday, Rin, and Neon, so I’ll probably skip most of the storyline for the other bosses, and Zuke and the other 1010 boys will show up later in the story. Sorry if you feel like there’s an imbalance, cause I’m writing this mainly for fun and my love for MayRin. Besides, my writing might not be good enough since English is not my native language. Sorry. XP  
>  Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy it! :D

Late at night in Metro Division, two men were strolling down the street. Everything was quiet, which was quite rare in such a city, but Neon wanted it that way. He led the other man into a narrow alley as he started talking. 

“It's been too long, hasn't it? I'm just too glad to see you tonight, general.” Said Neon with full courtesy. Although he was trying very hard, anyone could still easily tell that he was too excited to stay formal. The man let out a hearty laughter.

“Cut it, Neon. You know you can just call me Marviz.” Said Marviz with a big smile on his swarthy face. He was one of Neon’s old-time friends back in the Border War who was now a general serving in the Vinyl Navy.

Now they had gotten into the depth of the alley. With only the creaking sound of Neon’s robotic joints echoing between walls, the night became somehow more silent. The former sailor’s footstep was a metronome ticking nonstop.

“Ahh, here we are!” Neon announced delightfully as he stopped in front of an old, crummy two story-building.

“This is where you live? It can’t be.” Marviz frowned. “Don’t tell me that you can’t even afford a normal house.”

“Well, the house is just a house, my friend. Nothing to be particular about if it is no place to call home.” Neon didn’t seem to care about the poor condition of his dwelling at all.

“Neon……” Marviz’s voice lowered in sorrow.

“Let’s not talk about this. I didn’t invite you over for nothing, general! In fact…there is one thing that I’ve always wanted to show you.” Said Neon as he unlocked the door and had Marviz go inside.

“Oh, we got a surprise? I wonder what that will be.” Neon’s words let Marviz forget about the unpleasant moment a few seconds ago. His smile came back again. He seemed to be pretty interested, and that filled Neon’s heart with further excitement. 

Neon led Marviz all the way down to his basement as soon as they got in the house. It was very dark in there. Marviz could only see things within inches with Neon’s monitor head as the only light source. 

“Umm, Neon? What is this- ” Before he could finish, a sudden beam of light stung his eyes. While he was trying to recover from the dazzle, Neon began to talk.

“Meet MK-3, my life’s work.” Neon raised his pitch high as he displayed his invention proudly to the general.

Standing behind Neon was a tall android. Bathing in a beam of light coming from above, its metallic surface shone brightly.

“Wow, you built it… all by yourself? That’s really impressive!” Marviz stood in awe. He was incredibly amazed, but there was one strange thing.

“Err… What’s the sailor suit for?”

He asked carefully as he stared at the android’s torso, which was designed to look like a black sailor suit.

“I’m glad that you’ve noticed, General.” Said Neon. He straightened up and took a deep breath.

“ATTENTION—!!”

Neon yelled at the top of his lungs.

Upon receiving his order, the android lifted its chin up and saluted. Its snow-white hair swung lightly in the air. Marviz was startled.

“As you see, General, MK-3 is an android that I’ve built for military use.  _ He _ has been the only purpose of my life in all these years.”

“What……? What are you talking about, Neon?” Marviz started to feel disturbed. Neon kept going.

“Well… Life has been terribly empty since the day I retired from the Navy. I knew I would never go back to those days again, but I never gave up protecting my beloved home…...”

Word by word, Neon gradually got more agitated during his speech.

“All these years, I couldn’t stop thinking about other ways to serve Vinyl City……and this, is what I finally got.” Neon moved a few steps aside and pointed at his creation.

“Imagine, a type of warrior that is beyond life and death…...!! With no emotions, nor pain, nor fear. Completely mass-produced, can be easily replaced with just a snap of fingers! No one will get hurt ever again...... In this way, we shall change the definition of wars! The people of our city will no longer lose their loved ones to warfare. Together, we will reach true peace!!!” Neon’s metallic body was heating from the bottom to the top with great but dangerous passion.

The general was stunned. It took him forever to come to himself again. An endless moment of silence later, the general could finally put his thought into words.

“You are insane......” Said the general as he shivered in dread.

“Am I?” Neon asked. He turned his head slowly to the concerned general. “Maybe....... But sometimes to achieve great things, you just gotta be crazy, don’t you?” Neon laughed. For a second Marviz thought he saw a cold smirk on Neon’s expressionless monitor face. Neon cleared his throat.

“So, what do you say huh, General?” He stepped gently toward Marviz. “This is just the basic model. We can make modifications anytime in the future if you want, just name it! Once you approve our collaboration, we can put this boy into mass production. And by the time we have an entire army of them, we can-”

Before Neon knew it, he was abruptly interrupted.

“That's enough, Neon! You have to wake up! Cause it’s over. ALL. OVER!!” Marviz shouted uncontrollably. “Time has changed, far more than you think! You gotta move on from that war!!”

“Move on?” Neon paused for a second. “Excuse me, sir, but I think I have every right to speak here. You said you would do anything in return, well, this is your chance!”

“Look, bro. I know what I’ve said. I will really do anything just to pay you back, for you have saved my life once in that war. But this...... THIS, will not do you any good!” Marviz cried desperately as he pointed at the android behind his dearest friend.

“You’re a survivor, Neon! Why can’t you just cherish the new life you have right now?”

He stepped over to Neon and gripped his cold shoulders, shaking his body fiercely as if this could bring him back to who he used to be. But there was no use.

“There’s no such a thing as ‘new life’, General.” Said Neon, “Serving my city is the only way to make me feel alive.”

Marviz rolled his eyes.

“Neon, just face the truth. You no longer belong to the Vinyl Navy. Now you’re just like any other citizen, who needs to be protected by the military! You’re not a soldier anymore.” He managed to calm himself down and looked into Neon’s face as he spoke. “You know I’m serious. I AM.” His tone became firm and cold.

Neon’s shoulders fell powerlessly. Marviz’s rejection left him at a loss.

“So, you’re not helping me with this……?”

“Absolutely not.” The general told Neon his answer firmly, which dismayed him greatly.

“Please, Marviz…… I got nothing else. That robot standing right there is everything to me. I need your help. Please.” Neon entreated. His confidence had completely faded away, with helplessness as a replacement. He became silent.

Seeing his friend left speechless, Marviz took a long sigh as he shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Neon. I can’t do this. I CANNOT watch you do this. Please just settle down, and get a normal life.” He said to Neon.

“I can’t have a ‘normal’ life…A part of me had already died in that dang war.” Neon shook his head hopelessly.

“Of course you can. You just gotta go out more often, and see what’s going on in this amazing city.” Marviz smiled sadly. “...And you’d better stop thinking about that robot. You need a home, Neon. An ACTUAL home. Make a new family of your own.”

Marviz gave Neon his last piece of advice as he stepped back all the way to the basement exit.

“Good luck, pal.” Marviz saluted his friend before he disappeared in the dark stairway. Neon could do nothing but just stand there like a statue and watch him leave.

_ It’s all over. _

__ A voice echoed in Neon’s head. Loudly. Endlessly.

He stood in the middle of his disorganized workshop as his mind became completely blank. He couldn’t believe it. He did not see this coming at all. Then…... 

Footsteps. He heard footsteps. They were coming from the back.

“What is our next move, Captain?”

An auto-tuned voice sounded behind Neon. It took him a few seconds to collect himself and turn around.

“Soldier…...”

Neon did not dare to look into his sailor’s eyes. He sighed sheepishly as his monitor head lowered in frustration. “I... I didn’t prepare a plan B, unfortunately…...”

The android didn’t say anything. He looked at his captain in silence, waiting for his next order… if there was any.

A few moments later, Neon slowly raised his head and stared fixedly at his android. Before any word could come out, he put both his hands on the android’s shoulders and pulled him close toward him.

“But, some things will never change. Never.” Said Neon as he tried to fill himself with determination once again.

“There are a few things that I want you to remember: Your job is to protect people, and keep our home safe. End wars, don’t start them.” Said Neon in an unshakable tone.

The android saluted.

“Affirmative, sir.”

  
  
  
  



	2. Mayday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let’s see what happens as two happy accidents bring MK-3 the android, Mayday the human girl, and Neon the cyborg together!

It had been three months since Neon’s disastrous proposal. Neon was very confused. For him, time went so slowly and it felt like everything was floating and drifting by him. The broken pieces of his chaotic mind wandered around his locked house, bumped into walls, then went back to their owner again just to get ready for their next roam. Neon often found himself staring into pure nothingness.

He hadn’t said anything for a long time, either. Venting things out would probably help even if just a bit, but Neon still decided to keep his mouth shut. Perhaps he was just waiting for someone to break the silence before him. And he wasn’t disappointed with the result, though.

“Do you want me to clean things up, sir?” Asked MK-3, Neon’s android. He looked around Neon’s workshop, which looked just as miserable as his house seen from the outside. There were tattered blueprints everywhere. Some were lying on the cold floor, others were crumpled into balls, still, others were overflowing from a rusty trash can in the corner. There was a big smudge of spilled motor oil on the wall, and the lights in the basement were flickering constantly.

“No, just leave ’em that way.” Neon replied. He stared at the working table in front of him with his head low. 

“Yes, sir. Is there anything else?” MK-3 waited for another order from Neon.

“Right… Get me a cup of black coffee.” Neon stretched his arms.

“Well, about that, sir… I’m afraid that we have just run out of the last bit of it.” Said MK-3. “We’ve also run out of several other kinds of daily necessities. You may want to go out and-”

“Nope. YOU go out. I’m gonna stay here and work on your next upgrade.”

“But sir, you haven’t stepped out of the house for weeks. You need to get some fresh air.”

“I don’t need fresh air; I gotta work! Just get out alone and go fetch whatever we need, okay? ” Neon grunted impatiently. 

MK-3 paused.

“......Yes, sir.”

* * *

“Oh no… Oh no, oh no, OH  NOOO—!!!”

Upon getting off the metro, Mayday rushed all the way out of the station, into the large crowd outside.

Metro Division, one of the most bustling districts in Vinyl City. It was the first time Mayday visited such a big town. 

Typically, Mayday would never mind drifting off course for six hours in an unfamiliar city, but today was an exception. Her performance was starting in ten minutes. She had been waiting for this day for months, so there was no way that she was gonna miss it.

“Excuse me, excuse me! Oh! Sorry—”

“Watch your way, lady!”

Mayday tried to squeeze through the busy crowd and make her way to the venue. She ran into a few people on the street, and the guitar case on her back was swinging rapidly in pace with her hurried steps.

Five minutes left, Mayday gathered all her strength to speed up. Then, before she could hit the brakes, a man appeared in her way—

THWACK!!

Suddenly, Mayday’s face hit something cold and solid very, very hard.

“OOOUCH!!!”

Mayday fell heavily on the ground. She rubbed her nose trying to soothe the pain, only to find a tiny drop of blood on her fingertip. 

“Are you okay?”

A voice came into Mayday’s ears, but she was too dizzy to see the person who was talking to her clearly. At the same time, Mayday felt someone grabbing her by her wrist, slowly helping her up. The touch of his hand was so chilly that it made her shiver for a split second. Mayday tried to balance herself as she finally got up.

“Ugh, I think I bumped into a wall or somethin’ ……”

She blinked continuously to clear her vision before getting back to her rush, and that was when she saw the abnormal scene before her eyes.

Though she was in a big hurry, Mayday still couldn’t help but notice the unusual appearance of the man in front of her— he had grey shiny skin. And, although not very obvious, Mayday could see his white cheeks glowing faintly in the dark. His eyeballs were pitch black and his white pupils shone brightly like two bulbs.

“You’re a… robot……??”

Mayday opened her mouth in shock.

“An android, to be more specifi-”

“Duh, nevermind.”

Mayday ran past the android and headed to the end of the street. The android watched her disappear into the crowd. Just when he was about to turn around and leave, he noticed something— it was a small plastic case with a few guitar picks inside it.

The android picked it up and looked toward the direction Mayday had just gone.

It was his turn to make a rush now.

* * *

“Oh, come on… Why don’t you answer……!?”

In the backstage of an open-air concert venue, a girl stomped back and forth anxiously as she called Mayday for the twelfth time.

Her name was Mewnna. She was an indie country singer who first met Mayday in a bistro. Back then, they volunteered to perform on the stage when the jukebox there was out of order.

Now she was waiting for the guitarist to answer her call, but a voice cut her mind.

“Mewnna——!!”

A girl in a red tank top with a guitar on her back dashed toward her.

“Mayday, where have you been? It’s your turn now!”

“Yeah, I know…Just give me a second……” Mayday was still panting, and her face was as red as a lobster. She leaned on the wall as she struggled to breathe normally. 

“Okay, I’m ready.” Said Mayday after her few-second rest. She swept the sweats off her forehead and stuck her hand in her pocket, but she found it empty.

“Oh, darn! Where did it go!?” She cried.

“What? What’s missing?” Mewnna asked urgently.

“My guitar picks… I put them in a case and it’s gone! But I’m sure it was RIGHT here!” Mayday’s hand stirred anxiously in the pocket, but the case was nowhere to be found.

“You wanna borrow mine?” Asked Mewnna as she handed an ivory-white guitar pick toward Mayday.

“Okay… thanks, Mewnna.” Mayday sighed. She took the guitar pick from Mewnna then walked on the stage. She took a deep breath and started a brief self-introduction.

“Hey, everyone...” Mayday smiled a little bit awkwardly, “Welp, my name's Mayday and… I play rock!”

Mayday took a deep breath and started playing the intro.

“This is the third song I wrote, and it’s called ‘Vinyl City Rock’. Now everyone… LET’S ROCKETOK—!”

Mayday grooved to the beat as she leaned a little closer to the microphone stand. The audience cheered for her excitedly. Mayday opened her mouth and began to sing.

* * *

“Hello sir, have you seen a lady in a red tank top? She has a guitar on her back.”

MK-3 had asked practically every single person he saw on the streets trying to find the owner of the case, but in vain. He started thinking about giving up and just head to the store, for his captain was still waiting at the workshop.

And then, a voice coming from far away entered his ears. He couldn’t recognize what it was, which caught his attention. He listened to the voice very carefully.

_ So that’s enough bummer for me today _

_ Gotta let the whole city go all ears and hear me say _

_ Guitar, rock, and awesomeness is all I play _

_ Raise your hands, do your dance _

_ and make your butts sway _

It sounded like someone was talking, but slightly different from how his captain had always talked to him, and the voice sounded familiar, so MK-3 decided to follow the voice.

_ Gotta sing _

_ Gotta dance _

_ Gotta keep the rock on all night _

_ I don’t care what my neighbor upstairs says _

MK-3 kept running and started speeding up. He gazed around; the voice was getting closer and closer.

_ Here I come _

_ Here I go _

_ and that’s how I hit the stage _

_ Because Vinyl City rocks today~~ _

Now he was standing at the edge of a crowd in front of an open-air stage; it was the strange voice that led him here.

He looked up and saw a large banner hung above the stage, which said,  _ “Vinyl City Indie Music Fest—the first time in Metro Division!” _

He made his way to the front row to take a closer look at the performer on the stage— she was a young lady in a red tank top and a brown skirt; her blonde hair swung in the air as she played her guitar with full energy and passion. MK-3 could see her magenta eyes sparkling. The guitarist sang out loud.

_ Hey! Hey! _

_ To the beat! _

_ Party with me~~ _

_ Go! Go! _

_ Vinyl City! _

_ Let the fun begin ~~ _

MK-3 didn’t think he’d seen anything like this before. He just stood there still like a pillar, drinking in Mayday’s music. Every line, every note, and every time she hopped to the sky with a big smile confused him, but in the best way. An overwhelming amount of data flooded into his CPU; there was so much new information…… MK-3 knew he couldn’t understand anything, and it was fine with him.

_ Do you feel it? _

_ It’s the Vinyl City Rock!! _

_ Come and beat it _

_ We love Vinyl City Rock!! _

As Mayday finished her song. The crowd applauded and cheered for her passionately. 

“Thank you, everyone! Thank you all for coming here today~!”

Mayday yelled happily. She waved at the audience, bowed, and got off the stage.

While she was packing up her stuff and ready to join the crowd for the next show, a bassist came to her.

“Yo, Mayday. Do you know this tin man?” He asked.

“What?”

Before Mayday could understand what he was talking about, she saw an android standing beside the bassist.

“Hey… aren’t you the robot back in the…...”

Before she could finish, the android walked over to her and handed her a plastic case.

“I believe that this belongs to you, miss.”

“My guitar picks! Where did you find this?” Mayday took the case and asked.

“You dropped it on the road.”

“Huh… Well thanks, bud!”, Mayday smiled, “What’s your name?”

“MK-3.”

“...What??”

“Military Bot, Navy Edition, model MK-3.” The android repeated, with no slight emotion in his tone.

“Okay… my name’s Mayday. It’s nice to meet you, MK-3!” 

Mayday shook his hand as she glanced down at his chest; it looked as if he were wearing a black sailor suit.

“So, do you want to...”

Just when Mayday was about to invite MK-3 to watch the next performance, the lights went out. Completely out.

“Hey! What the...”

“Is it a blackout?”

“Aw man—!”

It all happened in a split second. Everything around was consumed by darkness. None of the street lights was on, and the audio facilities of the stage were off, either. Performers who hadn’t gotten to their parts were all left helpless.

A few minutes had passed; the electricity was still not coming back. 

“Wow, it’s been so long…Where the hell’s our backup energy?” Said Mayday. Then, she heard tapping sounds echoing around and looked up at the stage. It was the concert host; he had a microphone in his hands.

“Hey, everyone. Fellow musicians and music lovers... Can I have your attention please?” He said.

As the host kept going, everyone under the stage had their heads up and looked toward him.

“Welp, this one is really tough to say, heh heh... Anyway, we have contacted the power company, aand……”

The host scratched his head awkwardly. He paused a few seconds then went on.

“Due to the major blackout, our event today is canceled. I repeat, it is canceled—!”

Upon the announcement, an uproar rose up from the audience.

“Canceled? That’s awful!” Mayday frowned; she was just as upset as everyone else. 

“I have to go.” Uttered MK-3 all of a sudden.

“What? Why? Where are you going?”

Mayday chased after MK-3 as he walked faster and faster away from the crowd. Without knowing where they were going, the guitarist followed the android out of the venue.


	3. Rin

“I guess you’re pretty lucky that the store is still open. Looks like this area of the district got some backup energy.” Said Mayday with a smile on her face as she walked out of a supermarket with MK-3.  
“Indeed. Captain J would have been very disappointed if I had failed the mission.” Said MK-3, who was carrying a plastic bag filled with everything he got for his captain.  
“You know what? Metro Division is such a cool place! It’s got neon light signs and all those shiny gadgets everywhere! Too bad that I cannot enjoy the trip fully because of that darn blackout. The music fest was going so great, but... you know.” Mayday still looked a little disappointed. She kept rambling about rock music, her awesome performance at the music fest, and whatever she saw in Metro Division.  
“So, who is this Captain J? Did he create you or…?” Mayday stared at MK-3 curiously as she switched the topic into MK-3’s life story.  
“Yes, he is my creator. It took him years to program my AI, and he- ”  
Suddenly, a burst of quick, heavy footsteps approached the two of them from behind; following it was a furious roar.  
“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!?”  
A man showed up in front of them as they turned around. To Mayday’s great surprise, he had a monitor as his “head”, and his limbs were shining dimly like metal. Mayday stared at him wide-eyed, becoming completely speechless, but the man didn’t seem to have noticed her. MK-3 spoke first.  
“Captain J, how come you’re- ”  
“I was looking for you everywhere!!” The man interrupted, “The last time I went out was like a bajillion years ago, you should know how difficult it is for me to find you!”  
“I apologize for the sudden change of plan, Captain. It was an emergency. Miss Mayday dropped her-”  
“Blah, blah, blah…I do NOT care!!! You better be prepared for what’s coming next cause we’re gonna work all night! We haven’t even finished the-”  
Mayday couldn’t hold it anymore.  
“Woah—Your head is a…radar?? That’s sick, man! So this must be your Captain J, huh?” She bumped MK-3 in the chest lightly with her elbow, and he replied.  
“Yes, this is my Captain Neon J.”  
“Now who is this again?” Neon didn’t take notice of Mayday until now. “Gah, nevermind! I do not care. We go back to my workshop, NOW.” He stated very firmly, and angrily.

“Then taking the metro should be a good choice since we’re in a big hurry, sir.” MK-3 suggested.  
“That’s not gonna work, soldier. It’s out of service. This is a major power outage we’re talking about here.”  
“Wait what!? Out of service???” Mayday cried out, “But I live so far away from here! How am I supposed to get home and...”  
“Perhaps you can stay at our place tonight.” MK-3 offered an unlikely solution.  
“Stay at our place? No no no no……NO! Absolutely not!!” Neon turned him down without a second thought.  
“Why not, Captain? She needs our help.”  
“I know what you mean, soldier, but...” Neon leaned close to MK-3’s ear and talked under his breath. “...she’s an ordinary human citizen! She’s not supposed to get involved with what we’re doing in my workshop, or anything about my project!”  
“Do you mean the project that had been rejected three months ago?” MK-3 turned down his volume, just like his captain did.  
“Whatever! I’m still working on it, alright? I haven’t given up yet!” Neon shouted in a whisper.  
“Um, I can actually hear you guys.” Mayday reminded.  
“Ohh crap.” Neon put his palm on his monitor face. He turned around to Mayday and said, “Look, we’re not bringing a stranger home. It’s not gonna happen.” He stated very clearly.  
“So I’m gonna sleep on the streets tonight? That’s CRUEL!!” Cried Mayday.  
“No means no, lady. It is none of my business.” Neon shook his head.  
“Oh, come on—!” Mayday begged, and, surprisingly, MK-3 joined, too.  
“But sir, you’ve always told me that we’re supposed to serve our city.” He said. “Doesn’t helping the people here count as serving the city?”  
“What? But I...”  
Neon didn’t expect to hear that from MK-3; he did not know how to react. MK-3 kept going.  
“As long as we keep her away from the workshop, she should not pose any threat. Cause just as you said, Captain, Mayday is just an ordinary citizen.”  
He leaned closer to Neon and stared into the green dot in the middle of his monitor, looking determined.  
“Mmph......!!!”  
Neon grunted as he faced Mayday. He was trembling with anger. Or worry? Or indecisiveness…?? Whatever it was, Mayday just couldn’t tell since Neon’s “face” was a monitor, which didn’t and couldn’t have any facial expressions.  
“Well fine! We’ll take her in, but just for tonight okay? This blackout can’t last THAT long.”  
Neon quickly turned around after he made his final decision. He stomped toward the way home.  
“YEAH!!”  
Mayday put her arms in the air and cheered.   
“Thanks, bros!”  
“Geez, I haven’t interacted with actual humans for decades… how is this even going to work!?” Neon grumbled.  
“I believed that you did the right thing, sir. Thank you for your authorization.”  
Said MK-3 as he followed his captain with Mayday, who was skipping joyfully beside him.

* * *

Upon getting inside the house, Neon led Mayday straight to the second floor, not even turning on the lights in the staircase. Mayday struggled to feel her way following Neon, and she almost bumped into him when he stopped in front of a door.  
“Alright, this is where you’ll be staying tonight. Wherever you go, don’t come to the basement.” Said Neon as he opened the door and let Mayday in.  
He then turned on the lights, and that was when Mayday finally got to see the room clearly.  
Neon’s bedroom was very cramped, and the only few pieces of furniture were a creaky bed, a desk with piles of trash on it, and a broken chair. There was a mountain of wrinkled clothes on the bed, including a green sweater that looked too small for Neon. Mayday’s eyes opened wide; Neon was rather awkward.  
“Woah, this place is so...”  
“Yeah, I know…it’s a huge mess. It’s been a while since the last time I-”  
“AWESOOOME!!!”  
Mayday screamed in ecstasy. She dashed into the room excitedly and laid her guitar case against the wall. She then hopped onto the bed, bouncing up and down like a little child.  
“It feels just like my hometown! I had a room just like yours, but a LITTLE messier.”  
Said Mayday as she buried herself in Neon’s clothes; she found them suitable as a blanket.  
Suddenly, she stopped talking and her body became still.  
“...Wait a minute.”  
“What, what is it again?” Neon asked impatiently.  
“I- just realized that... I haven’t had dinner yet……” Said Mayday sheepishly. She could feel her cheeks becoming flushed in embarrassment.  
“Oh god—” Neon moaned.  
“Heh, heh…So—do you have any food here? I mean- obviously not because you guys are robots, but-”  
“I’m a cyborg, not a robot! There’s a difference.” Neon interrupted, “And yes, we DO have human food here. Just grab your dinner and get back here ASAP.”  
“Ha, thanks Neon!” Mayday winked at the cyborg.  
“I’ll prepare dinner for you two.” Said MK-3 as he got himself ready to lead Mayday and Neon to the dining room downstairs.

* * *

“Seriously Neon, this is totally not cool.”  
Mayday muttered in disappointment. She stared at MK-3, who was cleaning the kitchen next to the dining room. Mayday watched him do the dishes and put everything back in the cupboards.  
“Not cool, what do you mean not cool?” Asked Neon, though he didn’t really care.  
“What I’m saying is that this is a huge waste! I mean- look at him, Neon! He’s a high-tech robot! And all you let him do is... this...??? Some super boring house chores!?? There must be so much more that he can do! Anything but this! MK-3 wasn’t built to be a dishwasher, was he?”  
“Well no……This is just temporary. I’ll think about his purpose later, I mean after I finish this cup of coffee.”  
“Wait, you don’t even know what he is for!? Yet you still built him???”  
Mayday could not understand what Neon had just said, but Neon remained cool and calm toward her question.  
“Actually, I do.” He said, but Mayday noticed that his tone became low. “...Or maybe I should say I did……” Neon kept going. He let out a long sigh and shook his head frustratedly.  
“......What do you mean?” Mayday felt confused.  
“Look, soldier. MK-3… he was built as a new weapon, a robotic soldier. I was planning to collaborate with the Army and get him launched.”  
“And then......?”  
“They turned me down.” Sighed Neon, “They said I was crazy. I know I’m not, but...”  
Neon sank into silence for a while. Mayday did not push him to keep going. She just waited quietly for him to become able to speak again. Meanwhile, MK-3 had finished cleaning and came to the dining room to join them. He did not take a seat but stood silently beside Neon.  
“I…I am nothing if I can’t serve my city, cause I am a soldier. That’s who I’ll ever be……”  
Neon said helplessly with his head hung low. MK-3 stared at him but didn’t quite know what to do. He glanced at Mayday as if she had the solution, and she took notice.  
“Well… maybe it’s time for you to relax and enjoy your new life. Without guns, wars, and other stuff, you know.” She said to Neon, but didn’t really think it would work. “But your robot is pretty sick, though. You really should let him do something else.” She suggested.  
“Sure, but what? I got nothing...”  
“If you got no idea, we can talk about that later. But first you gotta at least give him a name, I mean a HUMAN name.” Said Mayday as she got up and walked toward MK-3 .  
“I do have a name, Mayday. MK-3 is my name.” MK-3 joined the conversation for the first time.  
“That’s NOT a name.” Mayday crossed her arms and said.  
“Then how do you define a name?” MK-3 asked, tilting his head.  
“Your name is who you are; it’s how your families and friends call you! It’s supposed to sound like you, and…and it shouldn’t just be a set of numbers; that sounds boring and has no personality at all!” Said Mayday.  
Neon watched them(mostly Mayday) argue about MK-3’s naming issue. He was just too tired to join in or give any comments, and the two of them seemed to have forgotten all about him, too.  
“If that’s the case, what do you suggest?” Asked MK-3, the nameless android.  
“Hmm...wait. Let me think, let me think. Welp-”  
Mayday paused for a second then snapped her fingers as if she had gotten something.  
“Okay. What do you like?” She asked.  
“...What do I like?” MK-3 repeated her question.  
“Yep. What makes you feel happy?”  
“I’m not sure if it is possible for me to ‘feel’ happy.”  
“Whatever, just think! Anything that you like! Or what you’re interested in!” Mayday pushed.  
“Interested?”  
“Um-hm.” Mayday nodded, “Like, you want to know more about it.”  
MK-3 closed his eyes and thought for a while. Mayday waited quietly for his answer; she was more urgent than she seemed. Then the android replied.  
“...Music.”  
He opened his eyes again as he answered.  
“Aand…?” Mayday expected him to keep going, which he did.  
“Ships, neon lights, navy stuff, Vinyl City at night……”  
Mayday nodded her head as more of MK-3’s answers popped out. Both of them were listing everything he came up with in their heads until there was nothing more.  
“Computers, humanity, and everything marine.”  
“Marine. Marine……”  
The word marine caught Mayday’s attention. She kept mumbling and looked at MK-3’s torso, which was designed like a sailor suit, then an idea came to her mind.  
“Oh, I got it! How about… we call you ‘Rin’?”  
“ ‘Rin’......?”  
“Yeah, Rin! Sounds nice, huh?”  
Mayday proposed, and that was when Neon finally decided that he had to cut in.  
“Woah woah, hold on! I don’t remember giving you permission for that!”  
Neon hastened to interrupt them, but nothing could stop an over-excited human and a curious android.  
“Rin……”   
MK-3 repeated again and again.   
“See? He’s thinking about it! Cause it fits him so well! He totally deserves a cute human name. Right, Rin?” She looked toward the android pleasantly, waiting for him to agree.  
“I’m afraid that this is none of my decision to make, Mayday.” Said MK-3. He turned his head to Neon and waited for whatever he might say at that moment. Whether he could get a human name or not was never up to his own decision.  
For a while Neon stared at his android, not a single word coming out from his mouth (, which he didn’t have). Mayday thought Neon’s stiff shoulders might be a sign of him feeling annoyed, but whatever. And finally, the captain spoke.  
“Fine... From now on, Rin is your new name. But I’m only doing this because Rin reads more smoothly than MK-3, so don’t get me wrong, okay?” He clarified.  
“Yes, sir.”  
Rin saluted.  
“Yesss!!”  
Mayday did a guts-pose as her quick little celebration.  
After the three of them reached an agreement, Neon got himself ready to get back to work. He never stopped complaining until Rin gave him a refill of black coffee and headed to the workshop with him.  
“God— this has to be the last time I let that girl fool me like this…She can’t keep getting her way!” Neon growled.   
A voice came from the stairway.  
“Good night, Rin!” Yelled Mayday as she walked upstairs. “Oh, and you too, Neon.” She added.  
“Good night, Mayday.” Rin responded.  
Although he couldn’t see Mayday’s face, her voice triggered the memories in his files within a second. Mayday’s smile arose in his mind; it was so clear…… For now, Rin hadn’t learned the meaning of smiling yet, but little did he know, he was gonna fall in love with this human girl and the radiant smile of hers in the days to come.


	4. An Inspiration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin sings a little song and Neon suddenly knows what to do with his messed-up life.

It was almost eleven o'clock, but Neon’s day was just about to start. He liked to work at night, though it didn’t really matter since he usually worked all day long.

Anyway, Neon got stuck with his project tonight, again.

Just as usual, Neon was working with his android in his workshop in the basement. He stomped his foot anxiously as he struggled to draw a new blueprint for Rin’s next upgrade. It had been two hours and he barely had any progress. In fact, he found himself worrying about something, but he didn’t know what it was. _Something_ just didn’t feel right, and it eventually occurred to him.

“…She’s being abnormally quiet for such a troublesome human.” He muttered, and his android heard him.

“Does Mayday’s existence bother you that much, Captain?” Rin asked.

“Absolutely.” Said Neon, “Rin, go upstairs to check what she’s doing and report it to me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rin saluted and left the basement.

* * *

When Rin got to the first floor, he heard a sound of music coming from upstairs, which prompted him to walk faster. On the way to Neon’s bedroom, Rin could hear the music becoming louder and clearer. And, before he knew it, he was standing in front of the door.

_Knock. Knock._

Rin knocked on the door gently; the sound of music coming out from the room weakened a bit, but it didn’t stop.

“Come in!”

Rin opened the door as soon as he heard Mayday’s voice. 

Mayday was sitting on the floor, playing her guitar. There was a pile of music sheets beside her, and an opened brown guitar case was lying on Neon’s bed.

“Oh hey, it’s you! What brought you here?” Asked Mayday. She only gave Rin a quick glance then went back to her song.

“I’m just checking if you’re comfortable with the quality of this room.” Rin lied, but he didn’t know why.

“I’m fine, thanks.” Mayday smiled, and their conversation ended. Rin knew he was expecting more; he just didn’t know where to start since he was seldom the one to start the conversation, if he had ever been.

Mayday’s music stopped. She started checking the sheets and tilting her head at them. It took a few seconds for Rin to feel ready enough to open his mouth and ask.

“I’m very interested in your music, Mayday. Could you show me more?” He asked.

“Well sure! Just a second… How about this one?” Mayday searched in the scattered music sheets on the floor and picked up a page. She began playing the guitar again, for Rin.

_Don’t be afraid of the dark dark night_

_My music can light up your smile~~_

Rin listened to her song closely. This one had a rather gentle rhythm compared to the one she performed at the music fest, and it gave Rin a whole different feeling. Rin activated his built-in camera and started recording Mayday’s performance. There was too much detail to analyze, but right now, Rin just wanted to listen to Mayday’s music.

_There’s only music. Nothing else._

Rin whispered in his mind, just like the time when he first met Mayday at that concert. He didn’t care about anything else.

The song ended. Mayday looked toward Rin and gave him a beaming smile.

“So, what do you think?” She asked.

“It triggers a lot of code in my program, and my database has been expanded by your music again.” Replied Rin, without any expressions.

“Okay… I’ll take that as a compliment.” Mayday was rather confused but still happy about Rin’s comment. Then, Rin went on.

“I’d like to know the purpose of your action.” He said.

“…What??” Mayday frowned in puzzlement.

“Why do you play music?” Rin repeated his question, in human language.

“Oh,” Mayday paused for a second, “well, cause everyone loves music! It makes people happy, including me!” Said Mayday delightfully as she played a quick guitar solo, “Music brings happiness to both players and listeners!” Mayday went on as she nodded at her own wisdom.

Rin tilted his head.

“Define happiness.” He said.

“Um, it’s the feeling you get when something good happens. You’ll feel happy and…”

“Define happy.”

“Well… it means you’re not worried about anything, and you can just relax and enjoy things around you, I guess. It’s a good thing!” Said Mayday. She tried pretty hard to answer Rin’s questions, for she’d never had to explain something that was so simple and so natural, but she did admit that it was oddly fun, though. 

“So you’re saying that music can relieve stress?” Rin tilted his head again.

“Yeah… whatever.” Replied Mayday. She felt as if her last brain cell were used up in this human-robot conversation. It was never easy to teach a robot human emotions, just as she had imagined.

“So… you got any other questions?” Asked Mayday, but she was secretly hoping that Rin would give her a “no”.

“Yes, I have approximately 374 more questions.” Said Rin.

Mayday’s jaw dropped.

“… But it would take too long to finish all of them in one sitting, so I shall keep them for later.”

Mayday heaved a sigh of relief.

Finally……! She said it out loud in her head.

“I’ve learned a lot. Thank you, Mayday.” Rin looked into Mayday’s eyes and said. 

“No problem, bud.” Mayday smiled and gave Rin a thumbs-up in response.

She watched him open the door and leave the room. She could clearly hear Rin’s heavy footsteps when he went downstairs; the metallic sound reminded her of that time when she banged a trash can lid with two rolling pins she stole from the kitchen, pretending it was a rock concert.

Music is the best.

* * *

“Captain, I’m ba-”

As soon as Rin stepped inside the workshop, he saw Neon sitting in the chair, his body barely moving. Neon’s head was down, and his monitor became black; looked like he had fallen asleep. Rin had not seen Neon doze off for a long time, maybe he was just too tired.

Rin knew what he needed wasn’t coffee but something else, something that he couldn’t give; he had noticed it right from the start. Ever since Neon got rejected, he had been moping all the time. He still buried himself in work all day long, but things were just not the same anymore. 

To Rin, Neon seemed to have lost something inside him that used to fuel him up; things could have been easier if Rin had known that “something” was called passion.

Quietly, Rin stood beside Neon, watching his chest rise and fall as he breathed in and out. 

Suddenly, Neon’s body started to tremble. He turned his head around, over and over, and he kept gasping hurriedly for air. Rin thought he heard him mumbling something as he became out of breath.

“Captain……?”

Rin reached out an arm to pat Neon’s shoulder, only to get grasped by his wrist by him and brutally pulled toward the working table.

Bang!

Rin’s body hit the surface of the hard metal table; the loud clank startled Neon to awakeness.

“Rin…? What the…gasp!!”

Neon got up in haste; he looked over Rin’s upper body from several different angles, checking if he had accidentally hurt him.

“Oh god… I’m sorry, soldier! Are you alright?” He asked.

“I’m fine, Captain. It’s all clear now.”

Rin’s reply didn’t make Neon feel better at all. He kept stomping around the table, feeling terribly upset.

“Oh…… What was I even doing? I’m sorry, Rin. I-I thought you were…”

Then, he became silent.

He slumped into the chair and buried his face in his hands.

“What seems to be the problem, Captain?” Rin asked.

“Nothing, just another stupid nightmare……” Neon struggled to squeeze out these words.

Nightmare. Neon had explained this word to Rin before.

It means a bad dream, he said. You won’t get it, he said. Because you’re a robot, which cannot dream, he said.

Rin never actually understood what a nightmare was. The only thing he knew was it would stop his captain from doing anything, like a major malfunction— at least that was how Rin saw it.

It was not the first time Rin saw his captain being like this. He usually stepped aside and did nothing but wait until Neon could calm himself down. But this time, an idea crossed his mind—

_Don’t be afraid of the dark dark night_

_My music can light up your smile~~_

Right here, right now, the android sang it all out. His auto-tuned voice echoed in the basement, delivering a unique melody to every corner of the room. Rin’s singing was not graceful, not at all, and it sounded too monotonous, too. But it was somehow soothing in its own way.

Slowly, Neon lifted his head up. He stared at Rin in amazement; he knew he couldn’t take his eyes off him anymore.

_Let’s build a junction if that’s alright_

_Let the melody travel for miles_

_Come with me and take a ride_

_We’ll see the light on the other side~~_

Rin tried to recall how exactly Mayday did it with the song as he kept singing. He closed his eyes and adjusted his volume so he could look and sound like her, which he couldn’t, of course.

Because he was who he was.

Neon listened to Rin’s robotic voice; it was dull, unnatural, but clear, unforgettable.

“Hey……Where did you learn that…?” Neon asked, he just had to.

“It was Mayday who taught me that, sir.” Rin stopped singing to reply.

“Mayday? You mean that human girl?” Neon couldn’t quite believe it.

“Yes, Captain. And she said that performing or listening to music helps relieve stress. Do you feel less stressed now, sir?” Rin asked.

“Well, I-I don’t know… Maybe……?” Neon wasn’t sure how to answer; it all happened too suddenly, unexpectedly.

Rin paused and loaded a little while; for a moment the air was filled with awkward silence. 

“…I’ll save that into my database, sir. Thank you for the feedback.” Said Rin, “Now it’s time for me to get back to work.” He turned around and walked toward another working table.

Neon immediately rose to his feet and rushed toward Rin, holding him back.

“Wait! C-Could you do that again?” He asked hastily.

“What are you referring to, Captain?”

“The song, just keep going with it! Show me what you got, anything! Give me everything that she’s taught you! I need to know what you’ve learned.” He prompted.

“Yes, sir.”

Rin sang the rest of the song for Neon. He tried his best to replicate every part of Mayday’s performance, everything as far as he remembered. Neon focused all his attention on the song, and he was incredibly astonished.

“Yes, yes…… That’s it! How come I’ve never thought about this before?” He uttered.

“I don’t understand.” Rin tilted his head.

“I mean- this is what I’ve been looking for! I found a new way for you to serve the city!!” Said Neon in utter excitement.

This was the moment, the moment when Neon finally found what had been missing all along; the sparks all came back to him now. Out of great ecstasy, he pounced on Rin and held him tightly in his arms. Rin was confused, but he didn’t move nor ask any question; he simply let himself sink into Neon’s embrace and said, “I’m happy that you’re happy, sir.”

“Who isn’t?” Neon laughed out loud, “I’m also happy that you’re happy that I’m happy! Come on now, robot boy! We got a ton of work to do!!” 

“…Yes, sir.” Rin responded as he finally managed to get out of Neon’s bear hug, and he was instantly dragged to the computer desk by him.

Waiting for the computer to finish loading, Neon couldn’t help talking to himself.

“I knew it, I knew it…! There is a way after all……”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey do you guys think I put too much effort abusing Neon with angst? I’m just asking.


	5. A Learning Android

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin is an awkward cute little baby. He's trying his best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~PLEASE CHECK THIS BEFORE READING THIS CHAPTER~~   
>  Some headcanons will be mentioned in this chapter, and they may become more important in the future, so I guess it’d be better if you keep this in your mind:  
>  In the original game, the Grand Qwasa located in the Festival Plaza seems to be the only qwasa that is big enough to power a whole city, and the mini qwasas are just canisters that are used to store electricity produced by the Grand Qwasa, which means they can’t turn music into electricity like the Grand Qwasa does; they’re just huge batteries. In addition, Vinyl City is likely one of the few or even the only place that uses music as a power source.  
>  In my AU, however, things are quite different: a qwasa is a rare substance that can be found all over the world, varying in size and efficiency. As for mini qwasas, they are extra small qwasas stored in cans, and they can turn music into electricity as well ( just imagine they’re like rechargeable batteries or scream canisters in Monsters Inc). Since almost 80% of electricity in the world relies on music, people often war with each other in order to take over regions that have more powerful qwasas, which is the reason why the Border War broke out.

Neon’s bedroom was a lot cozier than it seemed. After a casual shower in the bathroom which Neon probably had never used, Mayday put on the same clothes she had worn by day cause she didn’t bring any pajamas; who would have thought that she’d have to stay in Metro Division overnight, right? Anyway, Mayday buried herself in a blanket and some of Neon’s clothes on the bed and fell asleep. She curled up feeling like a baby worm; it was so comfy! The smells of motor oil and rusty metal coming from everywhere would probably rub onto her the next morning, but at least it smelled pretty nice to Mayday. She was having a good night’s sleep, until Neon broke into the room—

“Wake up, Private! It’s 4 AM!!” He shouted.

“Woah—!!” Mayday fell off the bed to the floor and hit her face.

“Ouch... ! What the hell, Neon!?”

“Listen up, soldier! I got a plan, but we need reinforcements; come to the basement with us, NOW!!” The former navy captain ordered.

“What are you even talking about?” Mayday rubbed her eyes as she struggled to get up. Rin walked up to her and reached out a hand to help her up.

“Oh, thanks!” Mayday took his hand and said, “Wow, feels so familiar, huh? But at least I wasn’t dashing directly toward a robot this time!” She giggled.

Together, the three of them went downstairs to Neon’s workshop in the basement. Neon began to make some space for their strategy meeting. He moved some woking tables away to place a big whiteboard and a chair for Mayday to sit. Mayday was still pretty drowsy; she didn’t have a clear head until Rin made her a cup of hot mocha with whipped cream.

“Alright, I’ll explain my new project. Make sure you all focus on everything here!” Said Neon. He was holding a metallic pointing rod in his hand, tapping it on the whiteboard.

“I had been stuck with the next step for months since my previous project got rejected, and it all came to me last night…! I got an answer!!” Neon announced excitedly.

“Cool, what is it?” Mayday asked as she took a sip of her mocha.

“Well, here’s what I got: I don’t have to let my robots fight in wars… I can stop wars before they even break out!” 

“What do you mean?” Mayday was a bit confused.

“Oh, come on— Did you even pay attention to your history teacher? You should know what I’m talking about if you have been to high school.” Neon groaned.

“I got no idea.” Mayday raised her hands into the air. Neon slapped himself on his monitor and sighed.

“Fine… let me give you a quick review: we need electricity for everything in our lives, but it’s never easy to produce enough of it. Qwasas and electricity are too precious, and that’s why people fight against each other! Just like that time when I fought for my home in the Border War……”

Neon’s heads lowered, but soon he cheered himself up and went on.

“However, we can fix that! You sang one of your songs to Rin, right? And he learned it! He sang that song to me last night!”

“No way!!” Mayday was very surprised, but she also felt a bit proud of the fact that she had taught a robot to sing.

“Yeah, no way! That’s what exactly I thought in the first place! But then, I saw potential in him…” Neon tried to calm himself down and said, “What if I let him use the power of his music… to bring energy to this city?” He snapped his fingers and asked. Mayday gasped in excitement.

“So you’re gonna make him a robotic musician? COOL!!” Mayday’s eyes lit up.

“Exactly.” Neon clapped his hands, but then he started scratching his head, looking a bit awkward.

“Welp-  _ however _ … heh heh…I have no experience in music; that’s why I need your help.”

He turned his head to Mayday, but didn’t dare to look into her eyes. Luckily, she agreed without the slightest hesitation.

“I’m ready!” Said Mayday eagerly with her wide pink eyes sparkling, “What’s our plan?”

“We need an upgrade, like a HUGE one.” Said Neon as he pointed the rod toward the briefing written on the whiteboard.

“I’ll have to add some modifications to his programs and hardware. And before we turn him into a musician, he needs to become  _ human _ first. So I’m in charge of his new functions, and you’ll teach him music and humanity.”

“Wait, humanity??”

“Yep, such as feelings, emotions, socializing stuff, and whatever! That one is on you. I’m sure you can handle it better than me.” Said Neon, “Just do whatever you want as long as he can learn the concepts of humanity from it. If you don’t have any other questions, let’s roll up our sleeves and get stuck in!”

“Yes, sir~~!” Mayday stood up and saluted Neon half-jokingly. She’d always wanted to do it whenever she saw Rin make a salute.

In the following days, Neon and Mayday worked on Rin’s update together. Neon even allowed Mayday to live in his house for a whole month, just to speed up their project. It was certainly a bizarre experience for both of them, but they quickly got used to it, for they have something much more important to focus on. And before moving to the second floor of Neon’s house, Mayday went back to her sewer home to get her stuff as well as what she needed to teach Rin music.

The project gave Neon’s life a whole new purpose. For the first time after the war ended, he became truly happy and passionate again about what he was doing. He thought dedicating himself to the military was already the best he could do for his home, but it turned out that he never really wanted to fight. He wanted to create peace, wanted to create a safer and better world for his people. As for his new “assistant”, Mayday, she was having a lot of fun, too. She enjoyed being with Rin and thought she was doing the coolest thing ever working with Neon J on a robotic musician. Both of them were on fire with the project.

But they were also met with some challenges.

Rin realized that he couldn’t interpret humans’ expressions. From the day he first opened his eyes, he had been confined in Neon’s basement most of the time. He had hardly interacted with humans before, and since his captain’s “face” was a monitor, which could not show any emotions, Rin had no slightest idea what smiles, tears, or widened eyes meant. And he could barely show any emotion other than confusion, either. Rin constantly tilted his head or blinked his eyes whenever he caught the chance; those were the only ways to express his feelings that he knew. Except for those, he didn’t know how to make himself closer to humans.

“Yep, this one is really tricky.” Said Neon. He kept shaking his head frustratedly while writing new programs. “I hardly worked on Rin’s facial expressions, for he was designed to be a robot for military use in the first place. Like- you know, soldiers are supposed to look cold and solemn, and they should never show their emotions to anyone.”

“Especially their enemies…?” Asked Mayday, tilting her head.

“Yes… and their closest loved ones. We should never bring our emotions into battlefields……” Neon lowered his voice. He seemed to have recalled something, something bitter.

“Well, don’t worry about that! We can handle this.” Mayday gave him a smile. She then turned toward Rin.

“Where were we again? Oh right… smiling!”

“Smiling?” Rin tilted his head habitually.

“Yep. People smile when they’re happy. And smiling can make you look more friendly, too. So if you wanna get along with people, just start with a smile!”

“Friendly……” Rin mumbled.

Neon took a pause from working and watched how Mayday taught Rin. She was smiling at Rin to show him how a smile works. Rin moved his mouth in every way he could trying to copy it, but nothing seemed to work.

“Come on, you can do it! It’s easy!” Mayday encouraged, “Just like this-”

She put her index fingers on both ends of her mouth and lifted them up, showing her bright white teeth. Her magenta eyes shone like two big rubies. Rin followed Mayday trying to smile back at her. He put his fingers on both sides of his mouth and lifted his whole head instead of just the sides of his mouth. Realizing it didn’t work, Rin then stuck his fingers in his mouth and pulled toward both sides, showing his teeth. He stared at Mayday with a rather quirky face.

“Uhh… you’re getting there.” Mayday smiled awkwardly at Rin’s effort.

“Whew… this is so much harder than I thought! I guess smiling just isn’t soldiers’ thing, huh?” She winked at Neon.

“Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have feelings. He is a robot, after all.” Neon sighed, “Faking a smile is already difficult for humans, let alone for robots. He has no reason to smile if he can’t actually  _ feel  _ happy.”

“I’m pretty sure robots can have feelings, too!” Said Mayday firmly, “He just needs practice.”

“Well fine… I’ll work on his expressions. But it’s gonna take much longer than just writing new programs cause I’ll have to rebuild the whole structure of his head.” Said Neon.

Another problem was that things rubbed off on Rin too easily at times. And for Neon, the worst part was when he learned the right things in the wrong way; just like that time when Rin first got the concept of anger.

“Gee… I can’t believe that she’s been in our place for over two weeks. I mean- I’m kinda getting used to it but it still feels pretty weird sometimes…” Said Neon one day when he was assembling a new model of Rin’s torso with him.

“Is there any problem, sir? I think our project is going fine with Mayday’s help, though.” Said Rin. He sounded a bit more natural than before.

“Yes, yes… I know she’s helped us a lot, but she’s not gonna stay here forever, you know.”

“Do you mean she is leaving someday?” Asked Rin. He sounded slightly shocked to Neon somehow; perhaps he had just learned another new emotion from Mayday.

“Well, of course! Or what else did you think?” Neon asked.

“I’m not sure, Captain… But I’d always thought keeping Mayday as our music and humanity technician could be a choice.”

“Hold up,  _ keeping _ …? You mean, like,  _ forever… _ ?” Neon’s monitor lagged then flickered for a second.

“Sure.” Replied Rin with no slightest hesitation.

“What!? Oh no no no… Tha- that’s not gonna happen.” Neon stuttered as he shook his head.

“Why not, Captain?” Rin didn’t understand.

“I know you want to keep working with her, and I’ve also noticed that you’re more like friends rather than colleagues sometimes… but she still doesn’t belong here!” Neon tried to explain, “We’re just strangers in some way, you know? What’s happening now is only temporary. Having her here all the time is probably too much-”

THUD!

Rin stomped.

“What?” Neon stared at Rin, feeling confused.

He stomped again.

“What?? What’s with the stompy feet? What do you want?”

Rin still didn’t answer. Neon started to feel annoyed.

“Alright, where did you learn that? Did Mayday take you to a kindergarten or somethin’? Cause I’m pretty sure only little kids do that.”

Rin turned his head away and kept his mouth shut like a toddler in a snit.

Neon took a deep breath.

“MAYDAY—!!!!”

Upon hearing Neon’s roar of fury, Mayday rushed downstairs and headed straight to the basement.

“Sup-bud? What’s wrong?” She asked.

“What’s wrong? He’s acting like a dang two-year-old! Where did he learn that? What have you done!??” Neon roared uncontrollably.

“Um… I think it might be the movies?” Mayday scratched her chin as she made a guess.

“The what? Movies??”

“Yeah. You say you don’t want Rin to go out and interact with people before you upgrade his AI, so I thought maybe watching some nice movies could be an alternative. It sure would give him a bunch of ideas about feelings and emotions!” Said Mayday.

“But what does this have to do with the stomping?”

“Well- there’s a grumpy little girl in the film we watched last night… but she’s super cute! And she reminds me of my cousin who lives in-”

“Zip it!! I’ve heard enough.” Neon interrupted. “Alright, new rule: don’t let him interact with humans under twenty. Not in person, not in movies, not in any form. I don’t want him to know about things like that.” Declared Neon.

“What? Why???” Asked Mayday. She found this rule pretty unreasonable.

“Because he’s still learning! He will copy whatever he observes! We have to make sure that he learns from the right samples so he doesn’t adopt weird knowledge, okay?”

“But how is he supposed to be truly human if he doesn’t interact with all kinds of people?” Mayday argued.

“No, listen soldier. I know what you mean, but that’s not our primary concern right now. I don’t want him to be too confused! His AI can’t handle that kind of information and-”

Suddenly, Mayday’s phone rang, interrupting Neon.

“Ooh, it’s from Mewnna, one of my music pals!” Said Mayday as she picked up the phone.

“Hey, Mewn! What’s up? Um-hm, oh… Gasp!! really!? That’s cool! I’m joining in! I’m sooo joining in!!! See you next Saturday!”

Mayday hung up.

“What, what is it?” Neon asked impatiently.

“Oh my god Neon, you gotta hear this out!” Mayday said excitedly, “There’s gonna be a small conference of indie musicians in Natura next week! We can take Rin there!”

“Wait, what? Like… for real??”

“Yeah! This is our chance! I bet it’s gonna be the most perfect way for Rin to perform his music  _ and  _ hang out with more humans! Maybe he’ll even make some friends!”

“Huh, it does sound great……” Neon mumbled, then he nodded his head.

“Alright, I’ve made my decision. That conference is going to be Rin’s first mission. We’ll put his upgrade to the test next Saturday!” He announced.

“Awesome!!” Mayday cheered.

“I’m ready to take the challenge, Captain.” Rin saluted.


	6. First Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gotta add some sugar cuz there has been a surprising lack of romance in this MayRin AU so far.

“Neon? Neon… look!”

“What?”

“He’s sleeping! That looks so cute!! Aww…”

Mayday tried to speak in a whisper, but she was too excited to hold her voice down. Now she was staring at Rin, who was lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, and in his arms was a dinosaur plushie Mayday brought from home.

“Huh, he’s running out of energy already? It’s a lot faster than usual…” Said Neon.

“Well, of course! There’s been so much to learn and now our robot baby is tired! He needs a rest.” Smiled Mayday.

“Please, don’t call him like that…” Said Neon embarrassedly, “…and plus, he’s not sleeping, he’s just in his sleep mode.” He added.

“That means the same!” Mayday pulled a face at Neon.

“Nevermind… Breaktime’s over. Just wake him up and come to the basement. His performance is tomorrow, and we need to get the last part done.” Said Neon.

“Okay, man.”

Mayday put her hand on Rin’s shoulder and shook his body gently. Rin opened his eyes.

“Oh hey, Mayday.”

Rin blinked his eyes at her and got up from the sofa. Despite being a robot, Rin still looked drowsy somehow, perhaps his programs were not done reloading after his sleep mode was deactivated. A few seconds later, he got ready and followed Neon to the basement with Mayday.

“Welp, I got bad news for you two…” Sighed Neon as he sat down at his computer desk.

“What’s wrong?” Mayday asked, feeling a bit worried. And Neon went on.

“I’ll just tell you the truth: we’re not fully prepared for the mission yet. I couldn’t complete the upgrade in time.”

“That’s a shame…” Mayday frowned, “But, he can still go on the stage, right? I think we still had plenty of progress with the upgrade though it’s not complete…”

“Well yes… I’ve upgraded his AI and hardware, but his speaking tone and facial expressions will still be limited at some points, so it’ll be easy to find him acting unnatural.”

“Don’t worry, it’s gonna be fine! I’m sure he can still do well.” Said Mayday.

Neon was doubtful. He didn’t say anything and simply stared at Mayday as she waited for his response. But instead, Rin spoke first.

“I’d like to give it a shot, Captain.” He said, which made Neon very surprised.

“I don’t want to give up on our first mission. You had worked so hard on it. I can’t fail you and Mayday…” He gazed at both Neon and Mayday. There was no emotion, but one could easily feel his determination. Neon stared at his soldier in silence.

“Well, I have no reason to say no since you’ve said so.” Said Neon a while later.

“Thank you, Captain.” Rin’s tone rose a bit.

“Alright, I’ll install the upgrade on you. You know how this works.” Said Neon as he gestured toward a long working table in the middle of the workshop.

Rin sat on the table then lay down, turning his eyes toward Mayday, who was standing beside him, looking confused.

“Good night, Mayday.” He said.

“Wait, what?”

“I have to go into sleep mode before Captain downloads the new program on me.” He explained.

Neon started attaching some white wires to Rin’s head and neck from his computer and a large machine behind the table. It looked like some kind of strange treatment in a science fiction movie. Seeing this felt a little odd to Mayday, but she didn’t want to turn her eyes away.

Rin had closed his eyes. Mayday guessed the working table was more like a bed for him.

“Does he sleep here every night or somethin’?” She asked curiously.

“Nope, he only goes into sleep mode during a procedure like this. Told you sleep mode works differently from human sleeping.” Said Neon, “Pretty much all of his repair, maintenance, and upgrades are done here. I complete new parts and programs then install them on him here finally.”

“Cool~~” Mayday’s eyes lit up.

“Anything else?” Asked Neon.

“Umm, no…?”

“Then go upstairs and get some sleep. Aren’t you performing together tomorrow?” Said Neon, pointing toward the door.

“Okay, see ya tomorrow!” Mayday waved at Neon as she left the basement.

* * *

The next morning, Neon walked Rin and Mayday to the door.

“Now go, my soldiers! I’m waiting for your good news.” He opened the door for them and saluted.

“Wait a minute, so you’re not coming with us?” Asked Mayday in surprise.

“Nope, cause I got Rin’s upgrade to work on.”

“What!? But this is his first performance—! You can’t miss it!”

“Shut it, Private! I have my own standards. And it is Rin’s job to go on the stage, not mine. I’ll just stay here and be our play-behind-the-scenes guy.”

“Aww—” Mayday moaned, but Neon didn’t seem to care about it.

“Well, if there isn’t any other question, I guess you two can move now.” Said Neon as he pointed toward the road outside. Then, Rin spoke.

“Actually, I do have a question, though it doesn’t have much to do with our mission.” He said as he turned toward Mayday.

“That’s okay. What is it?” Mayday smiled at him.

Rin didn’t answer. He stared at Mayday in silence. Then, he reached out his arms, put them gently on Mayday’s shoulders, and slowly pulled her to his chest.

Mayday gasped.

“……!!”

“What the…!?” Neon’s body became stiff as he saw the scene.

Rin held Mayday in his arms, and his chin was on her left shoulder. The metallic touch of Rin’s body was cool and hard, but Mayday found it comfortable somehow.

“Um, Rin…? What are you doing……?” Asked Mayday bashfully as her cheeks began to flush.

“I’d like to know what this means.” Said Rin, “Captain has done this to me before, but I’m still not sure what this is for.”

“Oh. Well- it’s called a hug.” Mayday answered as she also put her hands on Rin’s back and patted it lightly several times.

“A hug…?” Rin looked into Mayday’s eyes.

“Yeah. It’s just another way to say thank you, or to show that you’re happy and wanna share it with somebody. You do this to the people you love.” She explained.

“But what does love mean, exactly?”

“Well, it means-”

Neon didn’t wait until Mayday finished. He stepped up to the two of them and pulled them away from each other.

“Alright… I think that’s enough question for today.” He said.

Rin’s confusion didn’t get to be solved, but never would he know that it was probably a good thing for Mayday. She wasn’t actually ready to answer Rin’s question then.

“Well, see ya later, Neon! We’ll bring you a souvenir.” Said Mayday.

“Goodbye, Captain. J.” Rin saluted Neon. He lifted his chin slightly higher than usual.

“Goodbye, soldier. I know you can do it.” Neon saluted back, looking more proud than ever.

After the two of them got out of Neon’s house, they took the metro heading straight to Natura.

* * *

On the way to Natura, Mayday chatted with Rin about music and her childhood and practically everything you can come up with. She was happy to find that Rin had become much more human. The way he moved his eyes and brows got more diverse and how he talked sounded closer to actual humans. He still acted like a robot now and then, but the progress was big enough. It felt as if Rin had suddenly obtained feelings in just a second, but the truth was, he just didn’t have a way to express it before.

Anyway, it was around ten o’clock when they arrived at a music studio in Natura. This was the place where the indie musicians would be gathering together to share their music and talk about their future plans.

“Hey hey, guys! Long time no see~” Entering the lobby, Mayday waved at the musicians with a big smile on her face.

“Ayy, Mayday!” A keyboardist pointed finger guns at her. His name was Lunok. He was the host of the gathering today.

“Hiya, Lunok! Ready to rock~~?” Mayday winked. 

“Of course, bud!”

“Way ahead of ya~”

The musicians exchanged excited glances with each other. Mayday went on.

“Great! But before that… I got a biiig surprise for you!” She giggled, “I’ve brought a special guest, and you’ll never believe what you’re gonna see!”

Mayday gestured toward the door. The musicians looked curiously toward the way she was pointing.

“You can come out now, buddy!” Mayday yelled.

Slowly, Rin emerged from the edge of the door frame.

“Hello.”

He went into the lobby and bowed to the musicians. He tried to smile at them, but it didn’t work. Looked like smiling was one of the parts of the upgrade that Neon couldn’t complete.

Everyone’s jaw dropped within a second. The room was dipped in an unnervingly awkward air before Lunok finally managed to break the silence.

“Woah… that’s pretty rad, Mayday.” He didn’t sound as excited as he tried to be. “So… is this _robot_ … your friend?”

“Yep! I think we’re kind of like roomies, maybe? Cause we’ve been living together for almost a month. Not in the same room, just the same house… anyway that’s super cool!” Said Mayday.

“Okay……”

The musicians all nodded slowly and squeezed a smile awkwardly at the two of them. No one looked Rin in the eye. You couldn’t blame them for that kind of reaction; what they were seeing was truly bizarre at that time.

Rin took notice of their insincere smiles. He knew this was what would happen when he did something incorrectly but people still tried to be polite or encouraging. He bit his lips.

Is this what they call nervous…? Rin whispered to himself in mind.

“Come, Rin! Go ahead and introduce yourself.” Mayday reminded.

“Oh, right…”

Rin stepped closer to the musicians and started speaking. 

“Um, hello everyone… my name’s Rin. I’m from Metro Division. Aand… I’ll be performing with Mayday today.”

“Hold on, _performing_ ……??” Lunok raised an eyebrow.

“Of course! What else did you think? We all know that this music party is only for indie musicians like us.” Mayday winked at Lunok then everyone else in the room.

“Yeah, I’m in charge of the singing.” Rin nodded, “Is there any problem…?” He asked a little bit sheepishly.

“Welp- no! Anyone can play music! Right, guys?” Lunok looked around the room at the other musicians.

“Yeah…!”

“That’s for sure……”

They nodded quickly and kept smiling.

“Well, that’s great! Then let's begin, fellow indie musicians!” Said Mayday happily.

After confirming that everyone had arrived, Lunok led the musicians to a room on the second floor of the studio. He clapped his hands loudly to get their attention.

“Alright then… Everyone go find a seat! And get ready for your performance when you’re the next!” He announced.

“We’ll start from Mewnna, then Orlie, then Jezz… y’all remember the order, right?”

“Yes— you don’t have to remind us every fifteen minutes.” Said a bassist as he rolled his eyes.

In the next two hours, the musicians performed on a small stage in the room in turn, sharing their own music with each other. Each musician would talk about his or her idea and goal in music, then get some comments from the others.

“I want to mix jazz with a lil’ synthwave… what d’ya think?”

“Honestly… I’m not sure if I should go for heavy metal or psychedelic rock.”

“I hope I can do it… do you guys think I got the chance?”

“Hmm… you are pretty talented, but I think you still have a long way to go.”

“I really like your style! You should be more confident ‘bout yourself.”

“This song sounds unfinished to me. What’s the core concept?”

“That was amazing, man! You should go on the Lights Up Audition!”

“Nah- I can’t do it. They have crazy high standards in NSR.”

After five performances, it was finally Rin and Mayday’s turn to bring it on. They went on the stage together as Lunok started introducing them according to a note Mayday just wrote for him.

“Coming up next is the duo of Mayday the rock guitarist, and Rin the vocalist… probably the first and the only robotic musician in Vinyl City!”

“Well, we’re not exactly a duo… cause we don’t actually have a band. We just play music together.” Mayday added as she put her fingers on her guitar in the right positions. Then, she turned toward Rin, who was adjusting the microphone stand. Though he had already extended it to its longest, he still had to bend down a little to match the height of the microphone.

“Let’s do this, robot boy…!” She whispered to Rin with a confident smile.

“…I know.” Rin saluted and turned on the microphone.

Now the show began.


	7. It Hurts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So the author has decided to launch her first angst attack on Rin. (Also Neon being a good dad)

_From your eyes, I can see it all_

_I am no longer afraid to fall_

_As I reach the highest of all_

_I hear the music_

_I hear you call~~_

Right on the stage, Rin and Mayday sang together. Mayday’s fingers danced from string to string, playing an uplifting tune. They were singing the first song Rin had learned from Mayday. Rin observed Mayday’s expressions and movements carefully then tried his best to follow suit. He turned his head, lifted his chin, raised his shoulders, or swung his body as he sang out loud.

When they got to the last chorus, the two of them gazed toward each other, exchanging the jumping sparkles in their eyes. As Mayday leaned closer and closer to Rin and sang into the same microphone with him, Rin’s white cheeks started to glow. The gleams lit up Mayday’s beaming face. Finally, they closed their eyes at the same time as their foreheads touched.

Their song ended here.

“That was amazing, Mayday~! This is your best song!”

Mewnna cheered happily for Mayday, and the rest of the musicians began clapping loudly as well.

“Thank you, thank you~!”

Mayday and Rin enjoyed the shower of applause as they bowed to the fellow musicians. 

“Well done, rocker. Well~ done.” 

After Mayday got off the stage, Lunok walked up to her and gave her a high-five. Meanwhile, Rin was still standing on the stage. He watched the people down there quietly.

“God, I love that melody so~ much! You have no idea.”

“Yeah, you really nailed it.” 

“Well thanks!” 

“But you know what? I think you should work a bit more on the lyrics.”

“Um-hm……”

The musicians started giving Mayday some nice comments and advice. She was happy with everyone’s feedback, but it didn’t take her long to realize that none of the comments was about Rin.

“Welp- I think you’ve all talked about my performance. But what about Rin’s?” She asked for their opinions.

“Oh, you mean…” Lunok looked away awkwardly, “…the _robot_?” He lowered his voice.

“Yeah! He was pretty good, huh? I bet he’ll become an awesome musician one day.” Said Mayday with great confidence.

“Oh, well- about that……” Lunok leaned to Mayday’s ear and whispered, “I don’t think he’s equal to the job.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Mayday frowned.

“I mean- he’s a robot, Mayday!”

“Yeah, so what? Can’t robots play music? You saw him perform on the stage. You SAW it! Just like everyone else did!” Mayday started to raise her voice.

“I know, I know! Welp- I’ll admit that he’s pretty impressive… but only for a robot. He’s still too unnatural compared to humans. Like- you know… Robots are not like humans; they don’t have emotions or feelings. How can he sing the heart out if he doesn’t even _love_ music?” Lunok kept talking under his breath. He gestured at Mayday nervously to tell her to keep her voice down, but she didn’t care at all.

“How do you know he doesn’t know love? He _loves_ singing!” Mayday argued.

That was when Mewnna decided to cut in.

“Okay, okay! Stop fighting!” She said, “Well, at least Mr. J isn’t trying to make some robotic soldier anymore… I’d say that’s some good news.” Mewnna said quietly. Mayday’s eyes opened wide.

“Hold up a second, you know Neon?” She asked.

“Um- no… but my dad does.” Replied Mewnna, “The only thing I know is that they’ve fought together in the Border War, and my dad has seen Rin before… but he didn’t like _it_.”

“Not it, _him_.” Mayday corrected firmly.

“Oops, sorry! I’ve never met a robot like Rin before and my dad always refers to him as it, so… Anyway I didn’t mean it…!” Mewnna apologized.

Standing alone on the stage, Rin moved the audio facilities around to pretend that he was busy cleaning the stage, but he heard the conversation. He heard it all. Every single word.

Rin did not understand. He did as exactly his captain had told him, and he followed Mayday’s suggestions, too. He brought out everything he had learned. He just couldn’t figure out what went wrong.

Rin felt a strong sense of insecurity begin to well up from somewhere inside him. He was so disturbed by everything happening here. This was the very first time that he was actually afraid of something.

The argument continued.

“Well, if you’re really sorry, then you should go say it to-”

Thwack!

A loud clunk entered Mayday’s ears from behind. She turned around and saw Rin shove the door open then dash out of the room.

“Rin, wait!”

Mayday rushed behind Rin and followed him all the way out of the building. They stopped on a street outside the studio.

“Hey, woah… What’s wrong, buddy? Are you okay?” Mayday walked up to Rin and asked.

“I don’t think so……” Rin frowned, his head hanging low, “They don’t see me as one of them… not a musician, not a human.”

“It’s okay… you were doing great! Don’t let those words get to you. Just keep your head up!” Said Mayday.

“Okay…” Rin slowly lifted his chin, “What’s next?”

“Um- no no no… not like that. I mean- you gotta be confident in yourself! Don’t worry about what they say.” Mayday smiled and nodded, but it couldn’t calm Rin down.

“I can’t do it, Mayday. I can’t…” Rin shook his head.

“Of course you can! You just need more practice. And plus, Neon’s working on your new AI, you’ll become more human after he launches it.” Said Mayday as she turned around, intending to go back into the studio, “Come on, we still got a lot of musicians’ performances to see!”

“No!”

Rin grabbed Mayday’s wrist. He pulled her back and said, “Can we just stay here? I don’t wanna see those people…”

“Yeah… I know, but…” Mayday laughed awkwardly as she tried to pull her hand out from Rin’s, but he wouldn't let go.

“Mayday, please—”

Instead, he started pressurizing.

“Woah, hold on…”

It wasn’t until now that Mayday realized she had to struggle to get out. She tried to fling her arm then step back, and… nothing worked. Mayday’s wrist hurt as Rin kept pressurizing. The abnormal strength within his vice-like grip quickly went from inhuman to inhumane. The pain got far beyond endurance. Mayday couldn’t help but scream at the very top of her lungs.

“Aaaaagh—!!!! It hurts, it hurts! Let go of me— Just let go!!”

Mayday shrieked as her eyes began to well up. Rin was confused with her reaction, but Mayday’s scream sounded like a ringing alarm to him, so he let go of her hand at once. Mayday backed off and stroked her wrist continuously. It had become all red.

“Hurt?”

Rin tilted his head.

“What does that mean……?”

Mayday lifted her head and glared at Rin. She took a breath then shouted.

“Well- imagine some idiot just ripped your whole arm off! Is that clear enough for you, robot!?”

For the first time, Mayday erupted into fury with Rin.

“It felt terrible! I seriously thought you might just break my bone!!! What’s wrong with you? Why have you gone so nuts!?” She screeched at Rin, who became speechless with shock and confusion.

Mayday closed her eyes and sighed.

“Ugh… If you don’t want to stay here, then just go home. But just so you know, I’m not leaving.” She said as she turned around and walked toward the door. She glanced at Rin one last time before entering the building. 

Rin had no choice. He turned around and walked in the opposite direction, heading home alone.

They didn’t even say goodbye.

* * *

Rin got back to Metro Division soon, at least that was how it felt to him. With his head down, he shuffled powerlessly all the way home. His mind went completely blank.

_What’s wrong with you?_

Somehow, Rin felt something slightly stinging inside his chest, making his upper body hotter than ever. But he wouldn’t say it hurt, though, for he had no concepts of pain back then. He was just a bit confused at the strange feeling. Though the sadness was true, he didn’t have a word to describe it. He didn’t know it was what people called a heartbreak.

Anyway, when Rin finally got home, he went directly downstairs and entered the basement.

Neon was working. His eyes were still clinging to the data on his computer until he heard the door open.

“Oh, you’re home! That was pretty quick…” Said Neon as he looked toward the door, and soon he noticed that something was wrong.

“Um, where’s Mayday? Why aren’t you with her?” He asked.

Rin didn’t answer. He stared at Neon’s monitor then lowered his head in shame and frustration. Neon knew he never looked more depressed.

“I failed the mission, Captain……” His voice became very low.

“What? Why? What happened?” Neon didn’t understand what Rin was talking about. His soldier failing the important first mission was certainly not what he wanted to see, but instead of the failure, Neon was more worried about Rin. He let Rin sit on the working table to take a little rest. As Neon tried to calm Rin, he got all incoherent and started rambling like he had no clue.

“I’ve tried everything, and everything went wrong. There was a fight, and now Mayday is not happy, and I’m not happy, and I got a ton of questions again……”

Neon got even more confused after Rin “explained” the situation to him. He got a ton of questions, too, but he decided to answer Rin’s first.

“That’s fine, it’s okay to have questions. Feeling confused only means that you’re at least thinking. So… what would you like to start with?” Neon gazed toward Rin. Then, without a second thought, he asked the first question that appeared in his head. 

“Why do humans hate me…?” Rin frowned painfully. His metallic face distorted a little with sorrow.

“What……?” Neon froze. Rin’s question pierced his heart. And before he could say anything, Rin went on.

“It seems that… my existence triggers some sort of defense system inside them, making them keep a distance from me.” He muttered.

Neon clutched his chest. He shook his head then said to Rin, “They don’t hate you, my boy… They’re just not used to it yet, because… you’re unlike anything they’ve seen before, you’re special.”

“Is being special a bad thing……?” Rin asked.

“No! Absolutely not!” Neon refuted at once, “It’s just that… people are always unsure about the unknown, but this isn’t your fault! They are gonna like you once they get to know the real you!” He said to Rin.

“But what am I?” Rin seemed to have gotten more confused.

Alas, another tricky question. Neon froze yet again as he struggled to squeeze out the truth.

“I-I don’t know……” His monitor dropped with guilt.

Rin’s eyes widened in great dismay. He couldn’t believe that there were questions to which his all-knowing captain didn’t have an answer. Neon noticed his disappointment and tried to say something that might help. 

“… But it’s okay! It takes time to find out who you are.” He said, “You’re the only person that can define your true self. No one else gets to decide anything ‘bout that. And you will find the answer one day, I know you will.” He assured Rin as he hugged him tightly in his arms, patting gently on the back of his head. Rin closed his eyes.

“Welp- at least I wasn’t there right at that time… You wouldn’t want me to see you fail, huh?” He laughed awkwardly, trying to lighten things up.

“Wait…” Rin frowned, looking like something had occurred to him, “Did you already see this coming, sir?” He looked toward his captain.

Neon paused in shock. Then, he let out a bitter, sheepish laughter.

“Oh, heh heh… you’ve become sensitive enough to notice that……?” He lowered his head. His monitor became slightly darker than usual.

“I’m sorry, soldier… it’s not that I didn’t trust you, I didn’t trust the humans.” Neon explained, “I lock myself in this place all the time for a reason. I mean- look at me! How am I supposed to face myself and the people out there?” He pointed at his monitor and said.

“You’re not the only one here… I have a hard time trying to get back to society, too. I’m just not the human who I used to be anymore.”

“Captain……” Rin looked at Neon sadly, and Neon changed the subject quickly as if he didn’t want Rin to worry more.

“Oh, almost forgot!” He snapped his fingers and his monitor lit up again, “I’ve finished the upgrade just now. We can launch it anytime you want.”

“Oh, that’s great.” Said Rin half-heartedly.

Rin’s mouth shut. Neither he nor Neon kept on talking. He was just sitting on the working table and staring down at his droopy legs. Neon coughed deliberately.

“…But you know what? I think… you might not be ready for it yet.” Said Neon.

“Oh yeah…?” Rin didn’t deny.

“Yes. I was gonna install the upgrade on you once you came back, but seeing you suffering for these kinds of things reminded me of something… something very important.” Said Neon.

“Yes…?” Rin waited for him to keep going. 

Neon straightened up and took a deep breath, getting himself ready for what he was gonna say.

“Before we do this, there is one thing that I want you to know, Rin.” He stared into the depths of Rin’s eyes, “All these feelings, emotions, humanity, and love, they…they are indeed a sweet burden. They make us who we are, but they also make us suffer. Cause sometimes, there’s just so much to be depressed about, you know what I’m saying?”

“Yeah…” Rin nodded faintly.

“The new AI will help you learn everything more quickly and accurately, you know what that means…So I need you to consider it again. When you think you’re ready for it, come to me.” Said Neon with a stern voice.

“Yes, sir.” Rin gave him a weak salute.

“And remember, there will be no way back.” Neon emphasized for the one last time.

“…… Yes, sir.”

Rin got up from the table and walked toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Neon asked.

“Natura.” Replied Rin, “… I wanna go back to Mayday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to apologize for the spoiler. You know something’s wrong when the chapter title is called something like “It Hurts”. XDD  
>  By the way, I hope this chapter makes sense to you cause it seems a lil bit weird to me. 😖


	8. Give Me A Hug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter literally begins with a miracle and ends in a disaster, so this time, we're gonna pull out an UNO reverse card.

Rin was back in Natura again. He rushed to the music studio right away, but the conference had already ended and Mayday was nowhere to be found.

Down and disappointed, Rin left the studio and fell into a long, deep contemplation. There was no point in staying here since he couldn’t find Mayday, but he didn’t feel like heading back home, either, so he just wandered in the streets mindlessly.

A while later, Rin passed through a bustling flower market. Roses, lilies, marigolds, dahlias, daisies, and sunflowers… Here, one could see beautiful flowers of every description. The fragrance of fresh flowers flew in the air. Colorful waves of blossoms reached every corner of the streets. But all these pretty plants and scents meant nothing to Rin. He was hardly in the mood for feasting his eyes on Natura’s specialties, not to mention the fact that he didn’t even have olfaction.

As if everything today weren’t depressing enough, Rin noticed the people around were shooting him unfriendly glances. He thought about how many people had stared at him like this before he started to have feelings. Although he hated it, he found himself trying to recall the way General Marviz and the people in that concert where he met Mayday looked at him. His head was heating all over.

“Wow, _what_ is that?”

“No idea, but I think I’ve seen _it_ somewhere before.”

“ _It_ sure looks ‘unNatura’!”

Whispers arose behind Rin’s back. The word “it” got amplified by million times in his head, and it couldn’t have annoyed him more. Rin wanted to cover his ears, but then he found that the people weren’t talking about him.

“I guess it’s another RC drone that crashed from conflicting signals…?”

“Yeah… Perhaps the DJ is blasting his signals into space, AGAIN.”

Rin looked back. There were some people pointing toward a big drone that got stuck on the edge of a three-story building’s roof.

“Huh, I thought this only happens in Cast Tech.”

“Guys, please— His Music will reach the furthest corners of the galaxy!”

The people chatted about the crashed drone and the space maniac who was probably responsible for this. Except for their laughter, nothing really entered Rin’s mind cause he didn’t care at all. He walked away as he lowered his head and sighed.

_Clank._

_Clank. Clunk._

Rin turned his head. He found out a couple of the parts of that drone had fallen off from the roof and hit the ground. A nail dropped onto the floor then rolled toward the other side of the road like a tiny rock.

Rin was gonna leave since the people who just gathered around there watching the drone had already left, but then he suddenly noticed that a little girl with a backpack was passing by. The winds started to blow, and the drone was inches from falling off. Rin’s eyes widened.

“BACK OFF—!!”

Rin shouted, but it was too late. The strong winds had pushed the drone off the corner of the roof. Rin dashed toward the little girl in a flash. He reached his arms to their limits and bent down to cover her. Then, the next thing he knew—

CRASH!!!!

Ah, here came the sound that Rin was expecting, but it sounded muffled and deep to him. Perhaps his sound detector got destroyed before he could even react.

_Clank._

Rin’s hard metallic body fell to the ground powerlessly. He couldn’t move, and whatever was lingering in his chaotic mind just now had all disappeared suddenly. It felt as if his consciousness were taken away for a few seconds. Rin could only feel the little girl shivering in his arms, but that was until someone got her out of there.

_What is going on?_

_Why am I still here?_

_What are those humans saying?_

Rin heard his own voice echoing endlessly in his head.

_I came here for a reason……_

_Wait. Oh, right……_

_Mayday._

The voice got louder and louder.

_Where are you, Mayday…?_

_Mayday, Mayday,_

_Mayday……_

It wasn’t over yet.

_And Captain J…_

_Captain… I’m sorry……_

_I’m so, so sorry……_

Eventually, the voice began to fade away.

_Mayday. Captain. Mayday, Mayday……_

_……_

_……_

_…………_

* * *

Rin would never know how long it’d been. He lay on the ground with his face down, looking unconscious. All the eyes were on him, but no one dared to get close to the android. It took Rin some time to come to his senses and get up, alone. Everything happened in less than three minutes, but it felt so much longer to Rin.

“Ugh……”

Taking the first step after he got up, Rin suddenly heard something crack under his foot. He almost slipped on it. Although his vision was glitching all over, for a second he still saw clearly what he had stepped on— it was a twisted piece of metal that had a hole in it. Rin put his shaking palm on his face, only to find out that a piece of his “skin” came off from his face, revealing the horrifying endoskeleton inside.

“Eeeek~~!!!!”

“What the hell is THAT!?”

Before Rin could collect himself, the people around him started screaming and pointing at him. Some of them were even rushing away. Rin got anxious; he staggered across the street, not even knowing where he was going. The only thing that he could do was to cover the left half of his face and keep running.

“Mister, wait!”

Rin heard the little girl’s voice and her footsteps as she chased after him, but he didn’t dare to look back. He sped up to lose her and hid in a dark alley.

_She can’t find me……_

_She can’t find me……_

Rin prayed and prayed, wished and wished. He just wasn’t ready for this.

In the meantime, the little girl kept running on the streets and turning her head around, trying to find her savior. As her hasty footsteps entered Rin’s ears, he moved a little more inward to hide from the girl, but the creaking sound of his robotic joints only caught her attention when she ran past the alley. The little girl stopped immediately and moved back; she found the robot sitting at the end of the dark blind alley.

“Umm… Mister……?” She carefully approached the android who just saved her from a likely disaster. Had it not been for Rin, the accident would probably have become a tragic news headline in Natura’s local newspaper the next morning.

“Are you okay……?” The little girl asked. She stared worriedly at Rin, who was still covering his left eye with his palm.

“Go away.” Rin growled, facing the brick wall. He just hoped that everything could end as soon as possible. He really should have just stayed at home. What was he even thinking? Why would he come to Natura with Mayday in the first place? Why would he have said yes to a mission which he knew he wasn’t even ready for? He started to question himself. And the little girl, on the other hand, had not given up yet.

“What’s wrong with your face? Are you hurt?” She kept asking urgently.

“I’m fine. It’s just a little scratch. Leave already!” Rin shouted.

“…… Can I see it?” Struck with the unfriendliness, the little girl still managed to pluck up her courage and asked.

“…You’ll be scared.” Rin narrowed his eyes, showing her a cold look.

“Pretty please~~?” The girl widened her eyes in response. She tilted her head and interlocked her fingers.

Rin hesitated awhile. The little girl’s request did not seem to make any sense to him. What could she do anyway? There was no way she was gonna fix him, but Rin had no other option. The idea that showing the little girl his endo might scare her away eventually persuaded him.

Slowly, Rin put his hand down and turned his head to the girl. She could see it all now. Right in front of her, the android was showing her all his secrets. She saw the distorted upper left of his head. She saw the dark green endo under his silver metallic skin. She saw a bright white dot flickering nonstop, which was supposed to be his pupil.

The little girl let out a terrified gasp.

“Okay, you’ve seen enough.”

Rin turned his head away immediately as he lifted his left hand, intending to cover his damaged eye again.

“Wait—!!” The little girl yelled. She rushed toward Rin, leaped as high as she could, and grabbed his arm tight to stop him.

“What!?” Rin got impatient. 

“Um... I got something for you.” The girl uttered sheepishly, lowering her head.

Rin raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“... Just a second!” The little girl squeezed a brief smile at Rin. She kneeled on the ground as she took her backpack off. Then, she stuck her tiny arms into the backpack and started poking around for something. Rin waited in silence.

“A-ha!” The little girl pulled out her arm from the pack. She had a small piece of something in her hand; it was a band-aid.

“Lower your head, please!” The little girl smiled.

Rin bent his back forward and got his face close to her. He gazed at the girl’s rosy cheeks and sweet gentle smile as she put the band-aid carefully on his face. The band-aid covered most of the dark green area below Rin’s left eye, but the rest of the damaged parts of his face was still exposed. Nothing really seemed to have gotten better, and it was pretty much equivalent to putting a strip of tape on a shattered piece of window glass.

“Does that feel better now, Mr. Robot Man?” The little girl asked as she looked up at Rin’s face.

“I-I don't… know…… but, thanks anyway......” Said Rin unsurely, with his hand stroking his face lightly.

“You’re welcome!” The little girl blinked her big eyes at Rin.

Rin’s head drooped. He stared at the floor and sighed, not knowing what to do next. The little girl looked at him worriedly and decided to talk first.

“Well- that band-aid… it was for my mama, actually.” She whispered a bit awkwardly. Rin was confused.

“What......?” He turned toward the girl again, and she kept going.

“Yeah, she works in a garden. I thought she might hurt her hands while cutting those branches for the trees, so I was gonna bring it to her. But looked like you needed it even more.” Said the little girl, with a soft, caring smile on her face.

Rin did not know how to react; he had never been shocked in this way before. He just stared quietly at her. He eventually became able to speak again a while later.

“Come here.” Rin said softly. He slowly stretched out his arms toward the little girl, whose face was totally lit up by the action. Rin picked her up gently and held her tight to his chest. The android’s embrace was just as warm as the little girl had imagined, though unlikely.

For a while, both of them didn’t say anything. They simply enjoyed this special moment of silence with each other. Finally, with the girl in his arms, Rin rose to his feet and began walking out of the dark alley. 

“Where are we going?” The girl asked curiously.

“To your mother’s garden. Weren’t you going to see her?”

“You’re taking me there?” The little girl’s eyes sparkled as they opened wide.

“Of course. It’s too dangerous for a little kid like you to go there alone. Natura is a big city.” Said Rin.

“Thank you, Mr. Robot Man!” The girl gave the kind stranger a big smile.

“What’s your name?” Rin asked.

“…Yinu.” Replied the girl.

* * *

With Yinu’s guide, Rin arrived at the Central Garden of Natura with her in about one hour. At a flower market on the way, Yinu got Rin a tiny tree in a pot as her thank-you gift.

“It’s a very young tree. You gotta be careful with it!” Yinu reminded as Rin carried the rustling plastic bag with the tree in it.

“I forgot to ask… Does your mother know you’re coming?” Rin asked.

“Umm, no……” Yinu laughed sheepishly.

“What? You know you’re not supposed to do that, Yinu!” Rin frowned.

“Okay, okay! I just wanted to give her a surprise… I even made a fruit sandwich for her!” Yinu explained. Then, she lowered her head, looking a little bit sad, “But I won’t do that again, I’m sorry……”

Yinu looked at Rin’s “wound” as her eyes became watery. Rin patted her shoulders gently to comfort her.

“It’s okay, I’m fine, really!” He assured Yinu.

“Okay…” Yinu sniffled, “I hope there’s a robot doctor that can help you.”

“Well, there _is_ a robot doctor.” Said Rin.

“Really?” Yinu’s eyes sparkled.

“Yeah. The best robot doctor you can ever find.”

Yinu’s smile came back. She gave him another hug before they parted.

“Goodbye, Rin~! I’m gonna miss you so much—” Yinu kept waving and waving until she couldn’t see Rin anymore. Rin also looked back until Yinu’s tiny silhouette disappeared on the other side of the street.

On the way home, Rin couldn’t help thinking about the whole incident, and that heartfelt embrace. The warmth was enough to make up for a bad day, or even turn it into a good one. Thousands of thousands of thoughts passed through his mind. The performance, the humans, Mayday, Yinu, love and feelings, and the upgrade his captain had just completed.

Rin started speeding up. He dashed rapidly through the streets and the crowd, ignoring his loud metallic footsteps, ignoring his glitching vision, ignoring his electricity-leaking endo, ignoring humans all around staring at him as if he were some kind of monster.

He had to go home. Go home quick.


	9. Upgraded Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin wants to become a real boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG. I’M SO, SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE. It’s really horrifying to think that I’m almost running out of plot ideas for the next few chapters. 😱😭😭 I do have a lot of ideas, but it’s really difficult to put them together to complete an actual story. But don’t worry guys, I won’t abandon this fic, HOWEVER, I’ll probably update less often cause I’m pretty busy.  
>  Wish me success, buds. Thank y’all for your supporting.

“What do you mean you don’t know where he is? Didn’t he go back to Natura to look for you?”

“I said, I don’t know!! I didn’t see him at all, okay!?”

In Neon’s workshop, a cyborg and a human were yelling uncontrollably at each other. Their quarrel continued for at least half an hour. Neither of them actually understood what it was about besides screaming and pointless accusing, though. It all started when they found that Rin had gone missing for a few hours while Mayday had already come back to Neon’s place. Little did they know, Rin was actually standing right behind the door right now, waiting for them to end this fight. Perhaps it was their loud talking that they didn’t notice Rin’s footsteps approaching the basement.

The two of them went on and on. Rin was gonna look for an appropriate timing to knock on the door, but then he decided to enter the room straight. He reached his hand for the metallic door and turned the doorknob.

“I’m back, Captain.”

Upon hearing the familiar auto-tuned voice, both Neon and Mayday stopped talking at once and turned toward the door. They heaved a sigh of relief and thought it was finally over until they caught a glimpse of Rin’s endo.

“Thank god, soldier… here you are- HOLY MY GRENADE!!!”

“Rin—!!!??”

Neon rushed toward Rin; Mayday went after him. Neon checked Rin’s damaged parts carefully.

“Geez… What on earth happened to you…!?”

Neon grunted as he cupped Rin’s face in his hands and turned it around over and over. Rin’s vision kept glitching, making him unable to see things clearly. But Mayday’s voice caught his attention right away.

“Ooh… that looks so bad…!”

Mayday’s face distorted as she took a closer look at Rin’s endo. She actually wanted to look more closely, but it seemed that Neon was still busy checking Rin’s wounds, so she thought it’d be better to just stand aside.

“Mayday!”

Rin turned his head toward Mayday as soon as he heard her voice. He flung Neon’s hands aside abruptly and got away from him. He stepped up to Mayday and lifted his arm, holding a plastic bag right before her eyes.

Mayday froze for a split second, then, she took the bag and peeked inside. There was a tiny tree planted in a ceramic pot in the bag.

“Err… What is this?” She asked.

“An apple tree.” Replied Rin, “I’m sorry that I almost ripped your arm off, I hope this can make up for it…” He muttered sheepishly with his head down. Mayday shook her head and put the bag aside.

“Oh gee— Who cares!? You’re hurt!” She grumbled impatiently. She frowned out of both anger and sadness.

Rin raised his head, looking confused.

“I’m not hurt, I’m just damaged.” He said with a robotic tone.

“Ugh- that means the SAME thing!!” Mayday rolled her eyes. But then, her head drooped, and she sighed sadly, staring at the floor.

“Mayday…? Are you… okay?” Rin asked.

Mayday didn’t answer right away. She just bit her lips as she tried to avoid eye contact with Rin. Then, she shook her head and moved her eyes back on him again.

“Nevermind. Lemme look at you.” Said Mayday as she leaned toward Rin.

She reached out her hands and stroked Rin’s face gently. Her fingers climbed up from his left cheek all the way to that band-aid below his eye. She wanted to feel Rin’s endo, but her hand froze in the air when she could almost touch it. She decided not to do so in the end as if it would hurt him.

Slowly and lightly, Mayday’s hands fell on Rin’s shoulders, then she began to talk.

“I’m sorry, Rin……”

She said as she closed her eyes.

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt at all. I do not feel it that way like humans do, you know.” Said Rin, trying to make Mayday feel better. But she shook her head and frowned.

“I’m not just talking about that.” she said, “I know I’ve still hurt you in somewhere else.”

Rin became silent. He lowered his head as Mayday also looked away; she looked toward Neon.

“Hey, Neon. You can fix this, right?” Mayday glanced toward Rin in a split second and asked.

“Sure thing.” Neon nodded, “I’ll repair his damaged parts downstairs. It should be done before nine. As for you… make yourself some dinner and get prepared for tomorrow.” He said to Mayday.

“Prepare for what?” Rin asked.

“Nothing. Just get some rest and don’t think about anything else. You’ve been through a lot today.” Neon patted Rin’s shoulders gently. Then he took his arm and headed to the door to the basement, but Mayday stood in his way.

“Wait, Neon! Isn’t there anything I can do? I wanna help. I really should have been with Rin back there……”

“Hmm… not really.” Neon replied at once, “Just don’t worry about it, okay? I’m his creator. I’m in charge of this. And you’ve done enough for us, so don’t be too hard on yourself.”

Mayday’s shoulders dropped as she became speechless. Neon only nodded slightly at her, which probably meant “Just leave this to me”, then took Rin to the basement. 

Mayday’s lips trembled slightly. She felt her body growing hot, and the back of her neck started to prickle. Her sight became blurry as she watched Neon and Rin disappeared in the stairway.

* * *

“So……”

Neon stared at Rin as he took out his tools from a large box lying on the end of the working table.

“So… what?” Rin asked a bit nervously.

“Are you gonna give me an explanation on this or just pretend that this isn’t the first time?” Neon went straight to his question.

“Oh……” Rin’s voice became weak as if it were going to disappear, “I’m sorry, Captain……” He said sheepishly with his head down.

“Very well.” said Neon, “You can talk to me about it when you want to. That will be fine.”

“Thanks for your understanding, Captain… really.” Said Rin gratefully.

“Great. Now let’s get back to work.” 

“Um- before that, Captain… can I just have one request… ?” RIn asked carefully. He didn’t dare to look Neon in his monitor.

“…What is it?” Neon asked back. He didn’t tell Rin if he was gonna help.

“Well… you’ve said that I can talk to you when I’m ready for the upgrade, and… I think this is it. I’m ready.”

Rin raised his head and stared directly into Neon’s face, hoping to convey his determination to his captain.

“You are…?” Neon muttered doubtfully, tilting his monitor head.

“Yes, sir.” Rin nodded as he said it once again.

“Okay, then.” Neon approved without a second thought, surprisingly. He just trusted Rin’s decision that much.

“I’ll launch the rest of the upgrade after I fix that up for you. It’ll be done around midnight. Now hit the sleep mode.” Said Neon.

“Yes. sir.”

Rin lay down on the working table. He gazed toward Neon in silence as he was getting ready for hours of work. A strange feeling welled up inside his chest; it was warm and soft. Rin wasn’t sure what it was called, but it felt somehow familiar to him. It felt just like the moment when he performed with Mayday on the stage, or the few hours he spent together with Yinu.

_ What is it that makes those moments so wonderful, even the ones that seem hopeless? _

Rin couldn’t help thinking about it. It took him a whole minute to realize that he hadn’t switched to sleep mode yet. As Rin’s vision got darker and darker, he said the last thing left in his mind to his captain.

“Thank you, Captain. Thank you so much……”

Rin whispered. As far as he could remember, he saw dimly that his captain turned around to look at him, but he couldn’t stay conscious for long enough to hear Neon’s response. Rin closed his eyes, and… 

He went into sleep.

* * *

“Good morning, soldier…!”

Rin opened his eyes. Neon was standing by him, and his monitor was shining very bright.

“It’s done! And you’re fully charged, too. Can’t wait for a whole new day of fun, huh?” Neon said delightfully. Rin was sure he had never sounded more excited.

“Yeah… totally!” Rin was also thrilled. For the first time, a big smile bloomed on his metallic face. As Rin hastily sat up, Neon bent down and picked up a mirror leaning on the leg of the working table. Rin saw his own smile flash through the mirror. The next thing you know, his smile disappeared in a second, and it was replaced by a look of total astonishment. He blinked and blinked at his reflection and stroked his cheeks. He looked toward Neon.

“Captain, did I just…?”

He failed to finish the question, but it was okay.

“Yeah.”

Neon nodded. He waited quietly for Rin to recover from the huge surprise.

“Oh my god… I can’t believe it…!! I…”

Rin was almost gasping, no, making sound effects of gasping, to be specific. His smile came back and became even brighter.

“Mayday’s got to know about this!!” He said out loud.

“Yeah, sure!” said Neon, he was so happy for Rin. “Woah… you got so much more excited than I thought. I’m glad that you liked-”

Before Neon could finish, Rin pounced on him passionately and gave him a tight embrace.

“This is too wonderful, Captain! I can’t thank you enough… I _ love _ you—!!”

Rin yelled out in ecstasy. He was too excited to notice that Neon had already frozen in his arms, struggling to believe what he just heard.

“Well, I-I…” Neon kept stuttering, “I love you… too…” He patted Rin’s shoulders with stiff movements. Rin laughed.

“Okay… I think we’re done here. Why don’t you leave this poky place now? You got news to tell your friend, right?” Neon suggested after Rin finally let go of him.

“Oh! right… I was too hyped, sorry.” Rin laughed awkwardly and walked toward the door, “Are you coming, Captain?”

“No, I’ll just catch up with you later.” Said Neon.

“Okay.” Rin smiled at Neon. He left the basement and closed the door. Neon sighed as Rin’s brisk footsteps faded away on the other side of the door.

* * *

Rin trotted upstairs to meet Mayday. Standing outside Neon’s bedroom, which was practically taken over by Mayday, Rin heard her voice coming from the other side of the door; she was singing a song. Although the lyrics were muffled by the door, Rin could tell the melody was great. Rin had always adored Mayday’s singing, and her sweet voice delighted him just as always. He fell in love with her music in the first place, maybe before he knew what love was.

Rin knocked on the door.

“Oh, come in~!”

As soon as hearing Mayday’s response, Rin turned the doorknob and walked in.

“Mayday! I-”

The excitement within his voice ebbed quickly. He saw Mayday packing her stuff in a pink suitcase with flower patterns.

Mayday turned around and saw Rin standing at the door. She smiled awkwardly at him. Both of them knew this didn’t feel right.

“You’re… leaving…?” Rin managed to squeeze out the only words he could come up with. 

“Well yeah. I can’t stay here forever, right?” Mayday tried to laugh it off.

Rin frowned and tilted his head; he didn’t seem to understand. Mayday was not expecting him to look so confused, so she added, “I mean- Metro Division is a nice place and all, and I really really like you guys, seriously! Working with you on all that stuff is the coolest thing I’ve ever done… besides being a rock guitarist, you know.” She gave Rin a naughty smile.

“But… why did you never tell me about that before? Does Captain J even know about this?” Asked Rin.

“Um, he does, actually…” Mayday’s voice dropped as she looked away sheepishly.

“What…??” Rin got even more dismayed.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry, alright? I’m sorry that it might sound too sudden to you, but- I don’t know… I just didn’t feel like telling you the truth. Neither did Neon, cause you looked so happy…… ” Mayday tried to explain.

“I  _ looked  _ happy…?” Rin didn’t understand.

“Yeah… I know it doesn’t make any sense cause you don’t even smile… or laugh, or anything… but he says he just knows it. He can see that you’re enjoying everything we’ve been doing.” said Mayday, “…But now I know keeping that a secret was a bad idea. I’m sorry, buddy. I should have told you that. I’ve done so many dumb things… You can totally scream at me now.” She sighed and threw her hands up in the air.

“What? No, no… that’s not what I mean. It’s not like I’m mad or anything, but… I-I just don’t think I’m ready for this……” Rin’s head dropped.

“Hey, it’s okay! We’re gonna meet again soon, aren’t we?” Mayday gazed toward Rin with a smile as she tried to comfort him, but her smile looked sad. 

“Maybe…” Rin didn’t sound convinced, but he still gazed back at Mayday.

“Anyway, I just want to say that… I……” Rin tried to say something, only to become speechless when he found silence more expressive at the moment.

Slowly, Rin lifted his hands, put his index fingers on the corners of his mouth, and pushed them upward. His white cheeks shone brightly along with his smile. It was a tender smile, but it was also dazzling like stars. Mayday’s eyes opened wide.

“Hey… are you…??”

“Yeah.”

Rin nodded. He stared into the depths of Mayday’s watery eyes.

“Wow, I can’t believe it…… It’s, it’s…”

Mayday went out of words. Then, she grabbed Rin’s shoulders and shook his body excitedly.

“AWESOOMEE—!!!!!”

Mayday screamed as she jumped up and down like she knew she absolutely didn’t want to control herself. Rin laughed out loud, not caring about how Mayday’s over-excited nature had rubbed off on him in such a way. Then, he reached out his arms, grabbed Mayday’s waist, and pulled her toward him. Mayday exclaimed in surprise, but soon she let herself sink into Rin’s embrace. She put her ear next to his chest and heard something whirring continuously. It sounded just like Rin’s version of heartbeat. Mayday imagined hundreds of thousands of tiny gears spinning and dancing with each other inside Rin’s body.

“Hey, are you two done with the- GASP…!!”

Both Rin and Mayday turned toward the door. They saw Neon standing there, covering his monitor with one arm as he looked away. That was when Rin realized that he left the door open.

“Oh, hey Captain…” Rin laughed awkwardly as he quit hold of Mayday, and she spoke, too.

“Um, yeah… I guess we’re pretty much done.”

“Good. Let me help you with the suitcase.” Said Neon with an unnatural tone. Rin and Mayday exchanged glances and giggled.

A while later, Neon and Rin got to the door to see Mayday off. She couldn’t stop rambling to Neon about her suggestions toward Rin. 

“You should give him hugs often, and tell him to be more confident ‘bout himself. Your robot boy really needs a lot of love and this one is on you!”

“Wait… what??” Neon’s monitor lagged.

“You know… cause you’re his dad!” Said Mayday as if it were completely natural.

“WHAT!?”

This time, both Rin and Neon cried out.

“I’d hate to disagree with you, Mayday, but I don’t think that’s how it works…” Said Rin, and Neon joined in, too.

“That’s right! I’m just his creator, and his captain. That’s all, okay?” He emphasized.

“I see no difference~!” Mayday stared at Neon and smirked. Neon threw his hands up.

“Well, fine… I’ll do as you say, so just shut up.” He said. He sounded really annoyed. But then, he put it all aside and said to Mayday, “Farewell, soldier. Your mission here is done. We’ll always be grateful.”

Neon straightened up and saluted Mayday; Rin followed suit. Mayday saluted back, but she failed to hold back her smile as Rin did.

“Bye~~! You guys are the best! Hope we can meet again soon~”

Mayday waved at Rin and Neon as she walked farther and farther away from their house. She was leaving Metro Division today.

Watching Mayday gradually disappear from his sight, Rin recalled how Yinu told him that she was gonna miss him so much. He didn’t completely understand what that would mean back then. He knew what the word miss means, but not how it feels. And now, he understood it all. Separating hurt, but it was not as bad as Rin thought. Every smile, every kind word, every happy memory, every embrace kept him warm. Rin knew it was gonna be okay. He could wait… until the day they meet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it just me or every chapter is getting longer than the previous one. 🤭


End file.
